


In Case of Emergency Break Interdimensional Barrier

by skidblast



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Animated (2007), Transformers: Prime, Transformers: Rescue Bots
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Character swap, Crossover, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-19
Updated: 2016-05-07
Packaged: 2018-04-27 02:46:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 28,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5030692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skidblast/pseuds/skidblast
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A spacebridge mishap. A cry for help. And the universes have no clear idea on how to fix what's happening so it is to be expected that something goes wrong.</p><p>Optimus Prime finds himself in the middle of a war he's sorely underequipped to deal with, while dealing with the fact that now he should be hiding from the humans while being practically babied by the war veterans, though it comes to light that he has far much more to offer than anyone realizes.</p><p>And in the meanwhile Optimus Prime has difficulties adjusting to his temporary home, where things appear idyllic and at peace and he's not sure if it is just a facade or he's suffering from the type of paranoia that can only be bred by millennia long war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> As seen on Tumblr: http://skidblast.tumblr.com/post/128412567017/alorevfritz-skidblast
> 
> It has begun! This is going to be mostly unedited though with just a basic spellcheck and simple read-through before posting. I'm looking at Monday/Friday updates.

Sometimes, it was the universe that decided to take action. Optimus Prime felt it when he was in the green swirling tunnel-vortex of the groundbridge, the rest of the active team caught in an ambush that had been set up. An abandoned energon mine on the surface, a deadly trap on the inside.

But those thoughts were overshadowed by the pain as the currents of the space-time elements of the groundbridge attacked him, and more importantly, the Matrix. Optimus Prime had felt this way only once before, and the thought of that old foe returning terrified him.

Optimus hadn't realized that Ratchet had been trying to communicate with him until that white noise disappeared into deafening silence. Without even trying to get in contact Optimus knew that he was now cut off from his team, even though he was still in the groundbridge.

But it was the destination that was changed. That he was sure of. Just as he was about to embrace the unknown he saw a figure approaching him, about the size of Arcee. It was stumbling, disorientated, and it was very much Optimus Prime according to his very own spark. 

The other him stumbled into his open embrace, Optimus careful about not crushing the smaller and much different him. In that moment Optimus realized. If he was to deal with the calling that was pulling him out of his own world, an exchange had to be made.

But the other him was much smaller, and if he was right, he was also much less experienced in pretty much everything.

"I'm sorry." Optimus said to the other self he was embracing.

"Sari!" The other one called out afraid. "Is she- did she-" 

Even for the fog of disorientation lifting just slightly for the younger Prime, he was still too addled to make complete sentences. Or to even consider what just happened.

"There is no one else here but us two." Optimus said, and as the other him relaxed ever so slightly he knew it had been what he wanted to hear. But that moment was fleeting, as the universe decided that it was now time to put an end on both of theirs journeys. Optimus felt like as if he was being torn apart, and if the screams were any indication, the other him was feeling the same.

He realized that it wasn't just his body that was being torn asunder, but he was also rapidly realizing that the memory of this fleeting moment with the other self was disappearing into nothing. And the knowledge of what he was about to face was disappearing as well.

And then the world suddenly changed. Gone was the green swirling vortex passageway of the groundbridge. What replaced it was sudden weightlessness that lasted for fraction of a second before Optimus Prime collided with hard concrete surface under the glare of the sun.


	2. Welcome to the War

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of the chapters that was posted as a one-shot on tumblr. Rewritten.

"Hey Autobot! Get up!"

Optimus groaned as he tried to pull himself together. The femme's voice was somehow too low and yet too loud at the same time. The last thing he recalled was the space bridge going all haywire and he had just pulled Sari out from the shock point.

"Sari." Optimus tried to call, his voice hoarse as it seemed to be trying to rediscover itself.

"Forgiven." The femme said. "But it's better if you fought with us instead of us dragging you out."

"Fight?" Optimus muttered as he rose up. The reason for why his audials were ringing was because there was indeed some fighting going on, but it felt too loud and there were too many flashes going on for his visual receptors. He looked at the femme, who was about his size. She didn't look Autobot except for the fact that on one of her small "wings" there was a small Autobot insignia. She looked way too complex for an Autobot. Optimus knew that hiring other mechanicals for war was not what Autobots did, the historical records never mentioned that at all at least, nor did Ratchet ever speak of that.

Optimus quickly took in his surroundings. He was in a cave, there was a large seam of blue glowing crystals in one of the rock walls, but they seemed to be in a large chamber. Well, most of them, he and the femme were in a small artificial corridor, in fact almost all of the cave felt of some artificial make, reminding him of the cave where Megatron had his base and the space bridge. His visual receptors had already adapted to the low light that came from low-energy consuming soft lights.

He looked at where the femme was shooting at, peeking out from the cover she had clearly dragged him to. Several, and much taller mechanicals of the same species were fighting against each other, the opposing force looking pretty identical to each other while bearing the Decepticon symbol. There were two other faux Autobots, one yellow and about the same size of the faux Cons, and a green one that was taller and wider than anyone else.

"Just what is happening?" Optimus asked, recognizing just about nothing that was happening.

"I'm confused as well, just start firing!" The femme answered.

Optimus was still for a second, then heard the yellow one beeping and whistling something he couldn't understand.

"He said he's working on it, something happened to the groundbridge. But Prime didn't go through, we have -" The femme looked at Optimus, and Optimus swore that she looked very lost. Apparently she was equally confused about him as he was about the rest of them. "-someone else. At least he's on our side, I think." She continued firing at the mass of identical Decepticons.

Optimus couldn't stand by any longer and brought up his energon axe while activating his battle mask. He wasn't sure what was going on but the sooner the fight was over the sooner he could get some answers. Apparently the team just lost their Prime somehow and were directionless. While it wasn't his team he still had the Prime rank.

He rushed at one of the Cons that had been about to flank the yellow one and hacked at him with his axe. The energon blade of it sliced through him cleanly and he fell with a low cry. Other con came at him but stopped short of the range of the axe, prompting Optimus to launch his grapplers and trip him down. Before he could do anything to the downed Decepticon the yellow one shot at him while he was on the ground. They looked at each other for a moment before they continued to fight.

Just as he thought that they would clean the chamber as the last of the Decepticons fell down he heard loud steps ringing from another corridor leading to the chamber. The others also looked at the source and he heard the whine of the weapons charging.

"We need that groundbridge now!" The blue femme mechanical called in her own comms.

"Who's coming?" Optimus asked the yellow one by reflex at the same time he saw a large gray imposing figure who wasted no time attacking the others. Shooting at the yellow one who barely got out of the way and attacked the green one and with barely any effort wrestling him down.

So Optimus did the most obvious thing, he launched his grapplers at the weaponized arm and yanked hard, flinging it away from the green one and it fired on the floor. The moment the gray hulk turned his attention to Optimus, Optimus launched his fire suppressant foam directly at his face, aiming for the optics.

But before he could get his axe ready the large Decepticon simply backhanded him with barely any effort but it was enough to get him airborne, flying short distance onto a nearby wall.

"What's this?" He growled. "I had hoped for Prime to be here, not one of his imitator." Optimus had barely enough time to wonder what was going on as more of the identical decepticons came from the same corridor as the large one. But he got his pedes under him and now he had a grip on his energon axe, ready to activate it.

"I'm sorry to disappoint." Optimus said and lunged forwards, his swing of the axe made much faster with the assist of the thrust in it. But the giant seemed to know just exactly what was going on, gripping the axe just before it could hit his neck. Even for the thruster in the axe working at maximum his hand did not give an inch.

Until he twisted the axe, pointing the hot exhaust slowly towards Optimus.

Several things happened at once. Optimus, once he recognized the danger sent a silent command to the axe to stop using the thrusts. The suddenness of it caused the mechanical to push the axe away while Optimus let it go while bearing his left servo towards the hulk, again using the fire retardant foam to blind him and at the same time the yellow one shot at him.

The hulk let go of the axe and let it drop down on the floor. But before Optimus could even think about fetching it he felt the sheer force of a punch bearing directly down on him and he met the floor faster than he usually fell. Confused he looked up at him, trying to at least see the next punch coming.

"Impressive." The hulk said. "But you're no Prime." The punch never came as the hulk turned his attention to the others, apparently sure that Optimus was no longer a threat. A mistake, as Optimus launched his grapplers again, now wrapping them around the legs. With the element of surprise and a hard yank he managed to make the giant stumble, but not fall. Very experienced with what could happen next he retracted the grappler cable before the hulk could take a hold of it.

But it had the intended effect. The giant turned back on Optimus, apparently reprioritizing his threat assessment. Optimus wondered what the other Autobots' plan was, but he was sure that he needed to buy them some time. Optimus quickly stood up and readied his axe, activating the thrusters.

But the giant ran up to him faster than he had thought possible. He barely saw the blade that suddenly appeared from the arm, barely managing to dodge the swipe and just managed to let go of his axe so the blade would push it away rather than hack it to pieces. The axe, the thrusters still active rotated rapidly in the air.

And landed squarely in one of the blue seams.

"The energon!" The blue mechanical called loudly as the yellow one whistled in what Optimus felt like was alarm or fright. The Decepticons started calling for retreat. Optimus ran towards his axe and retrieved it, only to see his opponent actually running away. And he noticed the blue rock sparking and giving off tremendous energy. While it didn't look anything like the purple squares or purple liquid he knew what was Energon this was still as volatile as the real deal.

"Ratchet has the groundbridge fixed!" The blue one yelled. "Everyone retreat!"

"Ratchet?" Optimus asked confused. He hadn't even heard of a groundbridge before. Spacebridges he knew at least but this was new. He quickly transformed and followed the others. He could hear the blue rock rapidly deteriorating and destabilizing, giving off a major thermal radiation, the heat of which that was licking at his tires.

And then a green swirling vortex opened up in front of them and Optimus couldn't slow down fast enough to avoid it. In fact no one did. Everyone else went in there in front of him without hesitation, so Optimus decided that he had to trust them. So into the vortex he went, as the alternative was being caught in an explosion.


	3. Welcome to Detroit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's a brand new chapter!

"Woah woah WOAH! Who's that?!"

"Never mind that! Bulkhead, where did he go?"

Voices. Unfamiliar.

"He shouldn't have gone anywhere! I set the spacebridge to itself when everything went haywire."

Optimus looked up as he tried to get his feet under him. But a noise that reminded him of Knock Out's electro-staff made him pause and look up at the source. It was a small mech, but larger than a minicon, who had electric stingers at the ready and aimed at him.

"Where's Optimus?! What have you done to him?!" 

Optimus looked at the source of the new voice, a teenage looking human girl though the Matrix seemed to think she was part Cybertronian, but somehow without a spark. On closer look she had unusual eyes and didn't quite look like the humans he knew.

"My name is Optimus Prime." Optimus said, which caused everyone to look at him. All the mechs were shorter than him, even shorter than Arcee. One yellow, one green, one in medic colors and one brown and yellow two-wheeler. And then the unusual human. And all of them looking rather simple, for a lack of a better word.

"Not the Optimus we know." The red-and-white said as he stepped forwards with something that looked like a scanner. "Seems that you share some of the spark harmonics of Optimus. But there is a foreign object in your spark chamber that could be -" The mech stopped and looked at the scanner closer as he did another scan aimed at Optimus' spark chamber and the Matrix.

"I think it is an All-Spark fragment." The mech said, which caused everyone to react in slight shock. "I mean, it doesn't quite read like one but there is nothing that comes closer."

"An All-Spark fragment?" Optimus asked, wondering just what was going on. "I think there is much I need to learn. Who are you?" He asked. Better to deal with the introductions right now.

"I'm Ratchet." The medic introduced himself. "And here we have Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Prowl and the techno-organic is Sari." He indicated every else that was around. 

"Then we have a problem." Optimus said. 

"Slag right we do!" Ratchet said in a suddenly gruff and angry voice, causing Optimus to flinch. But Ratchet indicated to Bumblebee to lower his weapons, and Optimus took it as an invitation to stand up. His mountainous size compared to the others was much more apparent now, and he saw how it was now giving everyone a reason to pause.

"None of us recognize you, and you don't recognize us, that's for sure. Which means that this home-grown spacebridge of Bulkhead's-" This was unbelievable enough that Optimus had to look over to the green hulking mech, and he heard Bumblebee make a comment about not believing it either.

"- Somehow managed to cross the interdimensional boundaries. Not the first time that this has happened, but it is the first time I know of that we get another version of someone we know."

"Wait, so this has happened before?" Bumblebee asked. Optimus had managed to quickly distance him from the Bumblebee he knew. This one felt way too young.

"Last case we know was during the war. One where someone named Death's Head came over and fought for the highest bidder, thankfully Ultra Magnus managed to outbid Megatron and he stayed until he disappeared. And another where a bot named Cyclonus came over and said he would serve someone named Galvatron, but he joined the Decepticons anyway."

"But are there any mentions of reversing what happened?" Optimus asked.

"We're just going to have to make a first." Ratchet answered. "Not the first time we would have done it." It looked like he was about to say something more until a drone began flying all around them, and it centered on Optimus. That was enough jolt for him to realize that he was on top of a building in the middle of a large city.

"The humans!" Optimus exclaimed as he realized all of them were in the open and the drone had to be a human construct.

"Yeah, they're going to be curious." Bumblebee said. "Don't expect them to be warm towards you, after Glitch-Chin Prime went all organo-phobic on them they aren't that welcoming of Autobots that aren't us."

Optimus rubbed his own chin as he considered those words. It had clearly been a nickname but it was far from affectionate. "Your Optimus, he's anti-organic?"

"The kid's talking about Sentinel, not Optimus." Ratchet answered. "While it did take me a while to get used to all that carbon-based gooey stuff, I did get there eventually. Sentinel, and the likes of him, will never reach that point I'm afraid."

Optimus eyed the drone, hesitant about it being there as he had been staying hidden from the humans for so long. But no one else was reacting to it or hiding. It was apparently part of their regular lives. Being among humans.

Optimus brushed that aside and looked at the horned gateway in front of him. "This is a spacebridge?" Optimus asked, his eyes going over to the rather incomplete console in front of it.

"In making." Bulkhead answered. "It isn't even supposed to be functional right now. I guess something latched onto the ferrinium conduits and bitrated the Tailpipe constant with instructions for an instable gateway to wherever you came from."

"I still can't get used to Bulkhead talking science." Bumblebee said. "Did anyone figure out what that meant?"

"It was on purpose." Optimus looked up at the spacebridge again. "But the Decepticons I know don't have the capability to do this. What about yours?" He looked at the whole group.

"As I said before, interdimensional travel is something that if it did happen on purpose, it wasn't documented." Ratchet said. "If we're lucky, we might see something in the logs or the computers, but we're still dealing with mostly human technology here."

"And that the Decepticons here had to kidnap Bulkhead to get him to finish their spacebridge." Prowl added. "That would mean that if they had the means to sabotage our spacebridge-in-making, they wouldn't have needed Bulkhead's expertise to begin with."

"I imagine you have a lot of questions." Ratchet said. But right now we shouldn't be speaking about it where the humans are eavesdropping." He indicated the drone. "Let's head back to our base, and there you can ask whatever questions you got on your mind."


	4. Sure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another rewritten drabble, this time it's Alorefritz's which I rewrote with permission: http://alorevfritz.tumblr.com/post/128367571897/skidblast-entropic-introspection

Sure, he had seen the end of the tunnel that was in the green swirling vortex.

Sure, he had seen the sane semblance of structures that was not comprised of the eddies of warped space travel.

Sure, he should have assumed that it was safe at the end of the tunnel and there was no longer any need to escape at high velocity.

So failing to stop and transform in time was probably all on him. Including the rather embarrassing crash into everyone ahead of him, skidding, transforming followed by more skidding along the floor until he came to a stop.

"Sorry, we didn't have any time to warn you." The green one said as he helped Optimus up. The others were also getting up after the crash. Optimus noticed a new bot, white with red accents, looking over the yellow one. He had a similar lifeline decoration as Ratchet. And he had heard Ratchet being mentioned. But it was far from being the Ratchet he knew.

But before he could even think the blue one stomped over to him, anger clear in her face but more importantly there was some disappointment as well to be reflected as well.

"Were you even thinking back there?" She asked and Optimus was suddenly aware of everyone looking at him. "Going up against Megatron just like that? And completely disregard the energon deposits as well? Just who do you think you are?"

"My name is Optimus Prime, and since your Prime was missing I stepped up as per my duty as an Autobot commander." Optimus said curtly. "Who is your Prime anyway?" He asked.

He didn't expect the answer being such an uncomfortable silence.

"That would be Optimus Prime." The not-Ratchet finally said as he stepped over to Optimus, running some scan over him.

"Just what is going on exactly? Who are you?" Optimus asked.

"My name is Ratchet. The others are Acree, Bulkhead and Bumblebee." Ratchet answered. "What is the last thing you remember?"

"Before the fight? I recall being with my team, my Ratchet, Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Prowl. We were trying to build a spacebridge but something went wrong, I got Sari out of the way, I think. I hope she's okay."

"Sari?" Arcee asked. "That's what you were saying back at the cave. But there was no one else there."

"I'm sure she's okay." Ratchet said. "I've ruled out time travel at least. Your spark frequency does not match Optimus as I know him or from when I first met him before he took the Matrix. There are though several similarities, and not just in looks."

"So, different universe? Me and your Optimus swapped places?" Optimus asked.

"That would be the most logical possibility." Ratchet said. "Right now our groundbridge needs some maintenance. I registered some sort of power surge before I lost contact with Prime. However I don't know what caused it, but it most likely caused our groundbridge and your spacebridge to somehow cross each other. Was there anything that happened when you were building the spacebridge?" Ratchet continued speaking as he scanned Optimus few more times.

Optimus shook his head. "I don't know what happened." He said. "One moment everything was fine and the next the groundbridge connected to somewhere and threatened to tear the whole building apart." He noticed Ratchet frowning as he was both listening to Optimus and reading from whatever mod he had on his arm. "What's wrong?"

"No Matrix to begin with." Ratchet said. "And the lattice purity on undamaged sections is low, which means you're young or newly rebuilt. And you have far less damage than anyone I've tended to recently. Feels like I'm seeing more training injuries than actual combat wounds."

"I've not a war veteran if that's you're asking. But I've been up against my fair share of Decepticons." Optimus quickly said.

Ratchet rubbed his hand over his eyebrows as he looked down, mumbling something intelligible.

"Great, we lose Prime and we get a newbie we have to babysit?" Arcee asked no one in particular. "He's even my size."

"I think I handled myself pretty well back there." Optimus turned towards Arcee. "And I think surviving against Megatron is a good ending in my books. Not the first time I've been up against him." Optimus decided not to mention that his fights with Megatron had been extremely one-sided like the fight in the cave.

"You survived only because you ignited the energon and blew up the mine." Arcee walked up to Optimus but before she could say anything more Bumblebee cut in with more of his whistling speech.

"Yeah, I know." Arcee backed off and looked a bit resigned. "Would have been great if we did get that energon but that's how it goes. And now we've-"

Arcee got cut off by a loud alarm. Optimus looked around to see Ratchet just glancing at the nearby console before walking calmly towards it. "It's the kids and June." Ratchet said. "Good thing, because trying to explain you to Fowler will be a ache in the helm and much more." Ratchet went over to the others and checked them over. "I don't even know how Optimus deals with it." He muttered low.

Optimus looked around and now took in his surroundings for the first time. There was some long tunnel which he had come from, the "groundbridge" as the others had called it. The base was fit to host Autobots, but there was evidence of human, or at least small organics, habitation, such as a sofa, a tiny TV with even tinier game system, and there were also stairs. Looking around he saw the human language, so he could at least assume he was on Earth. As he was about to ask just where he was, he heard a car approaching. Ratchet didn't even look up from doing a check on Bulkhead, but Bumblebee quickly turned towards the other entrance to the room, stopping as the car came in view.

The passenger doors opened first and out came humans. Kids. One the size of upgraded Sari, the other smaller, younger than him, and the middle one was a girl. The passenger doors opened and an adult human stepped out. And everyone's attention was on Optimus.

"Who is that?" The girl said enthusiastically. "A new Wrecker? Pyro right?! Bulkhead told me all about you, how you-"

"He's not Pyro." Ratchet quickly cut in. "This is Optimus Prime, but from an alternative universe."

"But where's our Optimus Prime then?" The oldest asked as he looked around, realizing that the original team was missing one.

"Hopefully where he came from." Ratchet said. "Now then, everyone's fit and in no need for medical attention. I'm going to figure out how to fix the groundbridge. Between the scraplet infestation and this accident, any delays might be bad." Ratchet seemed to be satisfied with the meager explanation he gave the humans and turned towards the groundbridge, taking off some of the paneling in the floor.

Bumblebee turned to the youngest kid and seemed to be talking to him in a very animated manner. Optimus listened, as that seemed to be the only way now for him to learn Bumblebee's speech, letting the language centers study the mechanical vocals for context.

"You took on Megatron?" The kid said when Bumblebee finally paused in his storytelling.

"I don't know if I can say I took him on, but I'm sure he will not forget me soon." Optimus smiled. "But he certainly shares my Megatron's style of winning fights within the first ten nanokliks."

"Can I see your weapons? How about going to the firing range and blast some rocks with Bulkhead! See who's the better shot!" 

"I'm sorry. I don't have any gun mods." Optimus said. "You certainly remind me of Sari, another human I know." He smiled faintly, settling in to believe that she had gotten clear of the blast in time. "What's your names?" He asked.

"I'm Miko!" The girl answered. "The tall one is Jack, the one with the glasses is Raf, and the helicopter mom is June. If you didn't have any weapons how did you take him on?"

"Grapples, firefighting foam and my axe." Optimus said as he latched onto the familiarity. It was a poor substitute, and he knew his own Ratchet wouldn't approve, but as surrounded by strangers it was a lifeline he wanted to take a hold on for now.

"Don't get used to him." Ratchet said as he was working. "He won't be here for long."

"Have you already figured out how to send me back?" Optimus asked.

"No, I'll have to do some research." Ratchet answered. "But in the interim it would be best if you were with Sigma-17, a team of non-combatant Autobots we're hiding here on Earth."

"I don't believe it." Optimus said loudly. "I can fight, I even know a thing or two about spacebridges!"

"And I don't intend to get you killed." Ratchet answered calmly. "You might be confident in your abilities but you did admit you haven't been part of the war. I don't intend to bring a rookie into danger, especially an Optimus Prime." It had sounded like Ratchet was going to say something more, tear him another one but he suddenly went silent and the plain Cybertronian circuitry board in front of him appeared much more fascinating than it deserved to be. 

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" Optimus asked.

"Forget it." Ratchet said low. "You said you knew a thing or two about spacebridges, look at this with me and tell me what you think, and I might change my mind." Ratchet said, but it was very clear in his voice that he was far from doing it.


	5. Incoming call

It was an abandoned warehouse in the middle of the city of Detroit. That wasn't the most surprising thing for Optimus, that honor went to the fact that humans had occasionally stopped the Autobots travel for some photo op or ask them questions. And they had to keep face and deflect any questions about the new Autobot and where his look-alike was.

And then there had been the offer of oil and gasoline once they had arrived at the base. After some explanations and convincing Optimus got the energon he needed. While the color was more reminiscent of dark energon Optimus didn't refuse it. It did at least taste good enough.

The base was very unlike the Jasper base, disorganized, not really cleared of the unnecessary human equipment, the monitors that were set up could also double as gaming station, courtesy of Bumblebee. A part of the base was also open to the air and had a tree in it. Apparently Prowl had made it his own and decorated it to fit the whole nature theme he was into. And a small corner was only for Bulkhead's painting activities. Thankfully it wasn't like what the Bulkhead of his world ended up painting.

Sure, they went on patrols, they always had someone monitoring the sensors and were in contact with a local cop named Fanzone. But the whole relaxed attitude they had was far from what Optimus was used to. He thought that they would just find a role for him, some duty for him to do but everything was just too relaxed.

With Bulkhead and Sari working on some paintings for the next gallery show, Prowl doing some "zen" thing in his garden and Bumblebee was somehow simultaneously playing a game and monitoring the communication channels, Optimus found himself with not that much to do, just ending up sitting, sipping the energon he had been given and looking around.

"I know that look." Ratchet, who had been doing some inventory, came over to Optimus and sat down with his own barrel of oil. "Been a while since I've seen it."

"I've noticed that you seem a lot more experienced than the others." Optimus said.

"The two kids-" Ratchet indicated Bumblebee and Bulkhead. "-are from after the war. Prowl was a draft dodger but was caught in a slacker raid. He managed to dodge being thrown into the stockade and that probably saved him."

"The war is over and yet you're fighting Decepticons?" Optimus asked.

"We won because of our spacebridges and couple of innovations, and we banished the Decepticons from Cybertron." Ratchet said. "We weren't in a position to reintegrate them or wipe them out."

Optimus went silent as he held onto his energon cube, taking in just what Ratchet had said. He had thought about the end of the war, he had thought about what would be done about the Decepticons. Banishment was not what he wanted. The rebellion against Functionism was one part of the Decepticon core policies that Optimus supported, but the terrorism and violence Megatron used to gain attention among the lower caste was unforgiveable. 

As he was about to ask Ratchet about what had triggered the war he heard Bumblebee yell in alarm. He immediately engaged his battle mask but withdrew it seconds after as seeing no decepticons invading the base.

"Bossbot! I mean docbot! Ratchet!" Bumblebee stammered. "Sentinel Prime is contacting us! What do we tell him?"

"I'll take it." Ratchet said. "Optimus, you stay out of sight for now." Ratchet went over to the console and accepted the transmission. Optimus quietly moved forwards so that he could hear the conversation. He didn't like being left out of things. He was also a bit curious how this world's Sentinel Prime was. The one in his had created the environment that fostered the Decepticons, and given how everyone felt about Sentinel whenever he was brought up he was worried that there might be too many similarities.

"Earth team receiving. Ratchet here." Ratchet accepted the com connection.

"Is Optimus Prime too bothered with entertaining those organics that he can't answer my call?" Sentinel Prime immediately asked.

"Actually he's too bothered being lost in the multiverse." Ratchet said. "But since that happened just earlier today I doubt that's why you called here."

"Lost in the multiverse?" Sentinel spat out. "You senile old war relic I am not in the mood for any jokes! Now where is he?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?" Ratchet yelled back. "Right now I'm in charge while we're trying to get Optimus back. Unless you want to take over a crew of space bridge repair crew in the interim, and deal with the organics in his place."

Thankfully that managed to shut up Sentinel for few seconds. Optimus couldn't see the screen without revealing himself, so he didn't know just how he was taking that suggestion of Ratchet's. Though by the barely hidden grins Sari and Bumblebee had on their faces, for them it was probably a very entertaining reaction.

"Fine." Sentinel Prime said plainly, steeling himself against showing any emotions. "Autobot command intercepted a Decepticon communication made couple of solar cycles ago. While the intel is still working on figuring out who sent it, the message called for Cyclonus and Sideways to come to Earth for a mission, and whomever they see fit to bring with them. While I'm sure my team can handle whatever those two goons can bring I saw fit to at least let you know. If you notice those two, or some new Decepticons here, just call us for help and we'll handle it." And before Ratchet could answer in any way, Sentinel cut off the communication.

"That slaghead." Ratchet said low. "He let us know only so that we can be on the lookout for new Decepticons. And now I am the one who has to alert Fanzone about this mess."

"I find it more interesting that Cyclonus is on the way here." Optimus said. "You did say that he is, by all indications, from another universe."

"But Sentinel Prime said that the message was sent two days ago." Bumblebee said. "You just got here today. So there is no way that 'Con knew about you to begin with."

"He might not know about me in particular." Optimus said.

"But what happened to the spacebridge was no accident." Ratchet finished for him. "Not only do we have to stop at least three Decepticons, but we're also going to have to figure out what they did to the Spacebridge and why."

"Removing your Optimus was probably not the plan, but it might be that I factor into their plan." Optimus said. "Have you ever heard of the Matrix of Leadership? It can also be known as the Creation Matrix." Optimus tapped his chest right over his spark chamber, where the Matrix rested inside of him.

"Can't say that I do." Ratchet said and brought up his scanner again. "Is that what I read from you earlier?" He asked.

"It is an object of immense power, and I cannot lose it or Cybertron will be doomed." Optimus said. "If the Decepticons get their hands on it, they'll undoubtedly use it for their ill plans."

"So it is basically just like the Allspark, except smaller?" Bumblebee asked as he walked towards Optimus. If it weren't for the major height difference he would have been trying to see if he could see the Matrix through the windows in the chest.

"In my world it, and the Allspark, are connected to the core of Cybertron." Optimus said. "The allspark of my world was jettisoned into space to keep it away from Megatron's grasp. But you said something about Allspark fragments?"

"Well, what happened was that the Allspark, our Allspark, returned to us." Ratchet said. "Long story short, Megatron got his dirty servos on it and Optimus tried to destroy it. But an artifact like the Allspark does object to being annihilated, so it shattered, its fragments dispersing wide and far throughout Detroit."

"So half our problems are Decepticons here on Earth and the other half is the mayhem the Allspark fragments are causing once they get in contact with machinery or found by humans who can use them." Bumblebee added.

"And you're holding on your own? And Sentinel is not giving you proper backup or equipment?" Optimus asked.

"There is a resurgence in Decepticon activity all over the galaxy." Ratchet said. "The Autobot command got their servos full. Right now Sentinel is here to mop up the rest of Megatron's higher lieutenants with our help. Doesn't help that he bears a grudge against Optimus, so usually we're the last to know anything that isn't directly related to us or Earth."

"At least this time we're ahead." Bumblebee grinned.


	6. Encouragement of the wrong kind

"Prime!" Agent Fowler bellowed in his usual manner as he exited the elevator. Optimus looked up in response, only to see Fowler's momentarily confused expression as he looked at Optimus, and then around the room.

"Is this some sort of a joke? Don't tell me the 'Con's actually have some de-aging ray or shrink ray or some other just as absurd thing." Fowler then turned to Ratchet, apparently recognizing or knowing from experience that Ratchet was the second-in-command of the Autobots.

"It's Optimus, but from another dimension. I'm working on getting him back to his home while getting our Optimus Prime back." Ratchet said to Fowler.

"Uh-huh." Fowler just nodded, apparently managing to take it well or hiding the fact that he just didn't want to start arguing about this. "Does this have anything to do with the increased 'Con activity in Gila? I thought you had dealt with that already."

"It was an ambush." Ratchet said. "Optimus Prime went over to provide backup but he never arrived. Instead, this Optimus came." Ratchet pointed at Optimus.

"But what do you mean 'increased'?" Optimus asked Fowler. "I thought I blew up the mine."

"So you're the one responsible for the explosion seen from space. It looked like the entire fireworks storage for the entire fourth of July blowing up in flames." Fowler looked at Optimus. "But no, it wasn't until after that explosion that the Decepticons decided to make that mine their home. They're digging but in only one part of it."

"Scrap." Ratchet swore. "The Decepticons have better sensors and scanners than we do. It is possible that whatever they're after might be related to the accident."

"Then we should be going up against them, figure out whatever they're after and take it from them." Optimus took a few steps towards the groundbridge.

"Bumblebee, you're up." Ratchet said. "Scout the place, get a headcount, see who is in charge of the operation. And if you can figure out what they're looking for."

[[What about the groundbridge? Isn't it still on the fritz?]] Bumblebee asked, and Optimus was thankful that his language programs had finally picked up Bumblebee's speech, as now he didn't need to get translation or deduce by context what Bumblebee was saying.

"It's still a bit temperamental, but I can get it working. But don't get in trouble, it will take me couple of minutes to actually activate the groundbridge. So I can't give you a clean getaway if you end up having Decepticon's on your tail.

"What about me?" Optimus asked. "I'm the one responsible for this mess, I should at least help dealing with it."

"Bumblebee is a trained scout." Ratchet answered. "He has done this several times, and I'm confident in his abilities. You however -" Ratchet shook his head. "At least our Optimus Prime could get up against Megatron for longer than ten seconds. And you did admit you had no real war experience."

"So far you've kept me confined to the base and not allowed me to leave or do anything useful. I want to be of help but you won't allow me." Optimus went up to Ratchet.

"We are fighting a war." Ratchet said in a low but dangerous tone. "Just because we have some that want to fight we're not going to let them die a senseless death. I am not going to let you get killed a preventable death. Now go over there and sit down. I got a job to do."

Optimus knew when he was up against a stone wall. Or in this case a well defended fortress. He took those few steps to where Ratchet had pointed and sat down with great dramatics. It wasn't remotely fair. He and his world were as big of a part of this accident as theirs. Whatever their Megatron was digging up at the blast site was maybe related to him and his world and they would need his insight lest they would encounter something they couldn't understand or handle. But trying to explain that to them fell onto deaf audio receptors. He couldn't explain about every single nuances of his world to give them the perfect understanding of it that they needed if they were to keep him isolated all the time.

"You know Optimus -"

Optimus craned his cervical joints to see who spoke to him in such a secretive tone, the human girl named Sari. He didn't answer her as not to give them away.

"You know about how the bridge works." Miko said. "It's gonna stay open for few seconds after Bumblebee goes through. You want to have adventures? Sometimes you just gotta go."

Optimus looked at where groundbridge anchors. Miko was right. The groundbridge was on the fritz because of whatever that happened so it would stay open for few seconds. Doing the calculations he knew he could transform and drive the moment Bumblebee went through. Right now no one trusted him to do anything. But if he could prove himself, show that he did train at the Autobot Academy and had the title of Prime for a reason, this stunt could work out.

"So what do you say? Is that a smile I see?" Miko asked, certainly sounding much happier than before, she had the same tone as Sari did when she convinced Bumblebee to do something naughty. And Optimus had looked in the other direction when that happened because he knew how stir crazy Bumblebee could be if he were idling for too long. And right now it was he who was idling for too long.

Optimus just nodded once and kept his optics on the groundbridge. But his body shifted into the right position, the legs tucking under just slightly to support a sudden leap and jump to transformation, the arms ready to push Optimus up and forwards. The groundbridge opened, Bumblebee ran through.

And Optimus leapt forwards. No one expected it as Optimus transformed mid-air into his firetruck mode and the momentum carried him further than expected, the wheels already spinning before they touched the ground. And the moment Optimus hit the ground he jolted forwards at high speed, catching onto the still-active groundbridge and letting it take him to the other side of it.

At least this time Optimus knew to slow down and transform the moment he was on the other side. He saw Bumblebee just staring at him dumbfounded before straightening out and listen to his comm.

[[Sorry Ratchet, he sped out right past me. I don't think I can get him back here in time.]] Bumblebee answered the probably irate Ratchet. Few seconds later the groundbridge disappeared.

"Thanks for covering for me. You didn't have to." Optimus said to Bumblebee. Optimus wondered if Ratchet was now really regretting the fact that he never integrated Optimus' comms to work with theirs. At least it meant he didn't have to listen to Ratchet demanding him to go back.

[[You were going crazy back there.]] Bumblebee said. [[But Ratchet is right, this is dangerous for non-combatant like you.]] Bumblebee began walking towards his destination, carefully weaving between the trees and Optimus followed.

"I am not a non-combatant. I've fought against Starscream and Megatron of my world, I've deal with other Decepticons as well." Optimus said. "I know how to fight. Peacetime or not the rank of Prime is not some ceremonial rank."

[[I've always wondered, just what does the Prime do during peace?]] Bumblebee asked. [[I came out of the Allspark during the war so I don't have much frame of reference.]]

"It means we've completed training at the Autobot Academy and show that we can command teams." Optimus said. "And sorry if I don't understand you from time to time, my language subroutines are apparently still catching up, it mixed up definite and indefinite articles there."

Optimus wondered if he had said something wrong. Bumblebee hadn't answered him but he wasn't slowing down or being stealthier as they made their way towards the now demolished mine.

[[Who is the leader of the Autobots in your world?]] Bumblebee then finally asked.

"That would be Ultra Magnus." Optimus said. "He became the Magnus just before the Great War." He wondered why Bumblebee had asked that question. "So, who's the leader of the Autobots in this world?" Optimus asked.

For a moment he wondered if Bumblebee had heard him as he didn't answer immediately.

[[That would be Optimus Prime.]] Bumblebee answered. [[Optimus Prime appointed Ultra Magnus to be the commander of the Wreckers. Also, go as stealthy as you can, we're here.]]

Optimus would have tried to ask more questions about this revelation, ask just who their Optimus Prime was and how he was like, why there was so huge difference in rankings between their worlds. But he knew when he was over his head. He had known it the moment Miko convinced him to leap through the groundbridge. So for now, he went silent and followed Bumblebee as quietly as he could.

It was a huge open wound in the ground. A large hole of just dirt and rocks. There was barely any activity unless one looked closely at a small part of the hole. There several Decepticons were excavating.

[[They are where we fought.]] Bumblebee said to Optimus. For a moment Optimus wondered how he knew that, but then again Bumblebee probably had more information than he did, he needed to be able to scout properly. He looked at the sore in the earth more closely and saw that the part they were digging went a bit deeper and appeared more scorched than the rest, but just so.

[[Megatron's overseeing this dig.]] Bumblebee said. [[Look at left of the drill, the third Decepticon.]] For a moment it looked like just another moving speck in the distance, but as that speck moved just more and more Optimus saw that it was bigger than the others and was more neutral gray.

[[You stay here. I need to get closer to know what they're going up against.]] Bumblebee said. [[And please listen this time, I don't know if your training covered stealth enough to get that close.]]

"I will." Optimus said. He had realized that he was way over his head at the moment so the best thing he could was to do as Bumblebee said. Stay put, stay hidden, and oversee everything. Now he did regret not having any comms, or else he could at least tell Bumblebee if there was something he should beware of. Bumblebee went down the hill at an angle, keeping away from sight and making his way towards the now exploded mine.

The Decepticons kept drilling. Optimus couldn't see Bumblebee anymore and he figured that it was because of that Bumblebee was that good. But he had done the math and figured that he was at least down there, probably close enough to pick up random conversations that hopefully revealed what was going on.

But it was the sudden flurry of activity at the drill that made Optimus look at it. The Decepticon that was operating it suddenly vacated it as it suddenly lurched forwards with no real target in mind. He noticed how the other decepticons jumped away from it. He wasn't close enough to hear but he could imagine the shouts from the Decepticons as they realized that the drill was out of control. He wondered if Bumblebee had done it but he hadn't see any single flash of yellow in the mine.

The one Bumblebee had pointed out to be Megatron simply stepped towards the drill and fired on it. It seemed to have the effect of making the other Decepticons stop and fire at the drill as well. The drill stopped in its destructive path and Megatron stepped forwards, driving his fist into the drill. Few seconds went by as the whole arm was inside of the drill before Megatron finally extracted his hand, seemingly inspecting something that he was holding.

No one was digging anymore, there was no work to be done. The Decepticons were simply milling about. Then a groundbridge opened at the site. A blue, tall, lanky Decepticon exited and went over to Megatron. Now Optimus really regretted not being able to listen in as the two of them were standing by each other and were probably talking about their find. Optimus was filled with dread as he realized what it could be. The tall and blue seemingly took it and flew off, while Megatron and the rest of the Decepticons went through the groundbridge portal.

Optimus waited at his location for half an hour before Bumblebee finally returned to him.

"Let me guess, it was a small white crystal he was after, it was inside the driller and was what made it go haywire." Optimus said to Bumblebee.

[[Either you got a very good eyesight or hearing or you know what it is.]] Bumblebee answered, confirming it to Optimus.

"Yes, I know what it is." Optimus said. "But I think explanations can wait until we get back to base. I don't like being out in the open like that." He looked around and also up at the sky, wondering if that new Decepticon might be around watching them. Bumblebee quickly called Ratchet, asking for a groundbridge back to base.

"Just who was that Decepticon who flew off?" Optimus asked.

[[That would be Soundwave.]] Bumblebee answered. [[He's Megatron's communications officer and spymaster. If you transmit any unprotected communication, you can expect him to pick it up. And he's very dangerous. If you thought fighting Megatron was hard, you won't know what hit you if Soundwave decides to fight you.]]

"Wait, Soundwave? Seriously?" Optimus asked, wondering if he heard correctly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ran out of buffer. Might now end up at Monday updates rather than Mon/Fri.


	7. Dark tidings

For Optimus, it felt odd to be out driving in Detroit, among humans. At least he wasn't alone as Prowl was driving alongside him. Both of them had their holomatter avatars up, so Optimus wasn't feeling too exposed. While Bumblebee, Ratchet, Bulkhead, Sari and Isaac Sumdac were working on the spacebridge, that left Optimus and Prowl with nothing to do but to go on patrols for the Decepticons.

"You've been quiet." Prowl commented after few miles of navigating the traffic.

"It's a habit." Optimus said. "I've never spoken much during patrols."

"I guess I'm just not used to being around quiet people." Prowl said. "Bumblebee is the type that can never shut their mouth for more than two cycles, Ratchet likes to nag about the traffic while Optimus doesn't like long silences."

"I would have thought you would welcome the silence then." Optimus said.

But before Prowl could answer, a shriek managed to pierce through the sound of the traffic.

"More often than not, there is something that breaks the stillness." Prowl said and turned away from the main road and Optimus followed closely behind, heading towards the noise.

Neither of them expected to end up in one of Detroit's public gardens, seemingly overrun by seemingly thousands of small flying metallic beings that flew around everywhere, harassing the humans and driving them out of the park. The moment they transformed to really assess the situation the small robots converged on them, sitting on them by the dozens. Neither of them moved, unsure just what was happening.

"Insecticons?" Optimus asked cautiously as more of those beings came and laid on his frame, thankfully none of them burrowing under his seams and folds.

"No." Prowl answered. "They call them pollinators. They were made to replace some of the organic animals that couldn't survive here anymore but served a vital function in the plants' reproduction cycle here."

"This does not seem to be their function." Optimus shook his left arm, displacing several of the robot insects but they quickly came back on his arm.

"This could be the work of an Allspark fragment, but I've-" Prowl cried out as arcs of electricity suddenly ran through his body. Optimus became alarmed and shook off the robots off himself before taking Prowl into his arms, seeking to protect him.

"Prowl!" Optimus called, trying to get him to response. He took off at a run, hoping to outrun the flying robots.

"Still here." Prowl said weakly as he was thankfully recovering. "That was a nasty sting." He added.

"We can't get away easily or let these things run free." Optimus said. "We need to find a way to shut them down." He noticed that Prowl was getting more alert, so he put him down, letting him run besides him.

"These things were modeled after the organics they replaced." Prowl said. "If they did it correctly, that means there is a Queen. That might have the Allspark fragment that is causing this glitching."

"If there is a central computer controlling them, it must be nearby." Optimus said. 

"I am aware of that." Prowl said. "The central computer should be at the center of the park." Prowl quickly turned and as Optimus followed, two more Prowls appeared and ran in opposite directions, drawing good chunk of the robot insects away from the two of them. Optimus hesitated for a bit before the one in front of him gave him a signal to follow while the others did not.

"How does the Allspark fragment generally affect robotics?" Optimus asked Prowl while on the run following him.

"It's often random, causes the machinery to glitch and get out of control. We did have a manufacturing plant making law enforcement robots go haywire and the robots in turn also went haywire and attacked everything. But this feels different." Prowl said.

"They're behaving intelligently." Optimus said and looked up at a big swarm converging on them. "I believe they saw through your ruse."

"Or it is because we're here." Prowl said and stopped. It was a small building that was more of a large shed than an actual building. Optimus still towered over it. "They might be trying to protect the hive."

"I'll cover you." Optimus said as Prowl opened the doors and knelt to go inside. Optimus took a position by the doors as Prowl closed them. The robot insects were relentless and Optimus constantly moved to shake them off. However trying to stop them from getting inside the building to stop Prowl was a colossal task with how relentless they were. He thought back to when he saw how a scraplet infestation had done to the base and his teammates back in his universe, and it was not pretty. However these things seemed to be only able to deliver electricity.

Optimus' downfall was assuming that they needed to be in sufficient numbers to do that. Distracted by keeping the majority of them off him he didn't notice when some of them did get in the seams and under his plating, where their stings would really be felt.

Optimus cried out as his joints seized and he fell down on fours. "Hurry Prowl!" He called out. "Call for-" The moment he let out the word the constant pain in the seams disappeared and the robots simply fell off him and fell out of the sky. Optimus stood up carefully and watched as the doors opened and Prowl threw something out while hissing in pain.

"That is not an Allspark fragment." Prowl said, Optimus kneeling down to inspect what he had thrown out. It did look like a fragment of a larger crystal, like how the Allspark fragments had been described to him. However it wasn't radiating blue, but it had more of a deep purple sheen to it.

"Neither is this Dark Energon." Optimus said. "It would not cause machinery to glitch out in this manner, especially an unprocessed crystal this small. This is -" Optimus paused as he realized why Prowl had thrown out the crystal. It premediated with hostility, seeking out the very essence of its opposite for the sole purpose to destroy it. But beneath that was the pulse of light and hope and something Optimus hadn't felt for millennia.

"It is an Allspark fragment." Optimus said as he felt the same pulse of life coming from it that was the same as with the Allspark he had been forced to eject into space during the war. "However it has been tainted by something I had hoped I would never see again."

"By what?" Prowl asked, staring as Optimus opened up his chestplates, exposing the Matrix of Leadership. Optimus didn't answer as he concentrated the Matrix' energies into the shard, having only instincts guiding him on how to be rid of the taint that had taken over the Allspark fragment. It felt a lot longer than it really was, but when the last of the foreign influence left Optimus closed up his chest and collapsed to his knees. Within moments Prowl was by his side, checking on him and brushing the last of the robot insects off him while looking at the purified Allspark fragment as well.

"Optimus, what happened to the fragment? Why did I feel such hostility when I took it?" Prowl asked.

"It's an evil that comes from my world. I thought I had banished it away for good but it seems that I had only moved it elsewhere. And now it is here." Optimus said. "The Dark Spark has come to this world, the essence of Unicron's spark seeking to destroy what's left of the Allspark."

"I wonder if that is what the Decepticons are after." Prowl said.

"The Dark Spark is a terrible weapon." Optimus said. "Megatron of my world sought to use it to bend every Cybertronian to his will and control the very fabric of the universe. It grants immense power, if it can be controlled."

"I've never even heard of the Dark Spark before." Prowl said. "But if that is what the Decepticons are after, it is alarming that they know about it in the first place. If they are responsible, they managed to hijack our spacebridge to bring it here, and you might have come as well by accident."

"I believe that they would not have intended to bring me here." Optimus said. "But it is very possible that the universe has other ideas on what should be done with the Dark Spark and sent me as an intervention."


	8. On the sidelines

[[No seriously? Singing and doing a little jig?]] Bumblebee asked as he and Optimus went through the groundbridge vortex back to the Autobot base. Optimus was about to answer when he saw how Ratchet was glaring at him, and the kids and the two other Autobots were now absent. Optimus couldn't help but to cow a bit at the glare, turning silent and waiting for Ratchet to say whatever he had planned to say.

"I'm sending you to Sigma-17." Ratchet said. "I've already notified Heatwave of your arrival, and he has agreed to help you acclimate to the humans there and teach you how to behave around them."

[[Wait Ratchet, Optimus knows about what Megatron found in the mine.]] Bumblebee cut in before Optimus even could think of a good answer.

"What was he after?" Ratchet asked, his arms crossed and his expression never changing. Apparently Optimus has to really impress him to get him to at least listen to him in the future.

"It's from my world." Optimus said. "It's an Allspark fragment."

"A what?!" Ratchet tensed up and for the briefest of time Optimus saw sheer terror in Ratchet's body language. Apparently the matter of the Allspark was very close to him.

"Megatron had it." Optimus answered. "He would have used it as a weapon to turn the whole Galaxy into a Decepticon empire with him at the helm. I only had one chance to stop him, and I had to shatter the Allspark for that. Now the Allspark fragments are all over Detroit, cause havoc and mayhem when it comes in touch with any technology and has even created life identical to cybertronians."

Ratchet, who had somewhat calmed down, nodded. "So these fragments seem to have some immense power." Ratchet said.

"We can't let Megatron and the Decepticons keep it." Optimus said. "If there is any chance to make the Allspark whole again, I believe we would need all the fragments to do that. I need that fragment with me when I go back home, back to my universe."

"Of course." Ratchet said. "However you're still going to Sigma-17."

"You can't just cut me out of this!" Optimus stomped towards Ratchet. "I know what an Allspark fragment can do, I know how dangerous this is and I know-"

"And you know how to find it I hope?" Ratchet cut him off quickly.

Flustered by the unexpected co-operation, Optimus cleared his vents and headed towards the computer. "After Sentinel Prime's ship arrived on Earth, and after we convinced him that the Allspark had shattered, we tried scanning for the Allspark fragment with its unique signature. But even the smallest fragment has a huge signature, Detroit practically glowed on the scanners and we couldn't locate a fragment that way." Optimus did some commands on the console after he found the sensor interface.

"But in this case we're looking for just one. Let's hope that the Nemesis' shielding is not strong enough to kill that signature." Ratchet said.

After Optimus got his scanning program hitched to the scanners both from the Autobots and the humans, they waited in silence. The whole globe was being scanned, even the furthest satellites were in on the action along with several ground-based telescopes. But nothing came in return.

Optimus looked at Ratchet who was looking at the result screen and the scanning program, deep in thought. Neither spoke for couple of minutes as Optimus tried to initiate the program again.

"We are dealing with human technology." Ratchet then finally said. "I know of a crashed Autobot ship I can salvage for spare parts and I was going to go there for parts to fix the groundbridge."

"Fix the groundbridge?" Optimus asked as he looked at it. "I thought it was working fine."

"This whole incident has somehow "tainted" it, for the lack of a better word." Ratchet said. "And your presence is actually upsetting the groundbridge was well. I didn't notice it until you left and just then I could finally get a clear reading from the groundbridge maintenance scans. Which is why I'm sending you to Sigma-17."

"You need me out of the way if you're going to get to fix the groundbridge." Optimus calmed down. At least it wasn't his lack of war experience that was the sole reason for why Ratchet wanted him out of the way. It was a bit silly but it felt good to know that.

"And the Sigma-17 team has a functioning Autobot ship, access to the best human technology. As long as you don't raise attention you might be able to find the Allspark fragment before I do." Ratchet said. "If you need actual flight capabilities to find the Allspark fragment, I'll call Wheeljack to help you. Optimus does not want the Sigma-17 team to get the attention of the Decepticons, so it is for the best that their ship stays where it is."

[[Well, I hope I'll see you soon.]] Bumblebee said to Optimus.

"You will call for me once we've located the Allspark fragment and you've fixed the groundbridge, right?" Optimus asked, a bit cautious and wondering if Ratchet would use this opportunity to get him somewhere safe. Optimus did not want to be left out of everything, even though everyone else had far greater experience than he did.

"We'll see." Ratchet said. "Sigma-17 safety trumps yours, so if there is any indication that the Decepticons are looking for you specifically, I'll call you back to keep them safe."

Optimus nodded. He knew it was better to obey rather than doing some crazy stunt again like just before. And if wherever he was going was going to help him locate the Allspark fragment, which was for the better.

[[Optimus, you mentioned Sentinel Prime.]] Bumblebee said. Optimus nodded and saw Ratchet tense up a bit at the mention. If he had done it when Optimus had first mentioned Sentinel, he hadn't noticed. [[Just how was, I mean, how is he?]] Bumblebee asked. [[I mean, ours was kind of-]]

"I would not be exaggerating if I didn't say that Sentinel Prime's rule fueled the situation that bred the Decepticons." Ratchet said. "Unless you're certain it's not the case, I would be wary of whatever policies your Sentinel Prime does. Though I'm more curious as of how there can be two Primes at the same time."

"Right, Bumblebee told me that your Optimus Prime was the leader of the Autobots." Optimus said. "I guess it is tied to the rank of Prime." As Ratchet nodded in confirmation, Optimus continued, "In my world, the rank of Prime is a military one. It says you trained in the Autobot Academy and can command a team of Autobots for various tasks. The title of Magnus is the one granted to those who lead the Autobots."

"Interesting." Ratchet said. "Our Ultra Magnus was left on Cybertron to command the remaining Autobot forces there while the majority of us fled the dead Cybertron."

"Dead?" Optimus asked. "I know that back home there is a minor energon shortage but-"

"Keep a track on that shortage." Ratchet quickly cut in. "And keep an eye on Sentinel just in case."

"I know Sentinel can be bit of a jerk and slag-head but I don't quite see him ruining everything there is about Cybertron." Optimus said.

"I could be wrong." Ratchet said. "And I wish that I were wrong. I just wish for that your Cybertron does not share our Cybertron's fate." He turned back to face the console. "I'm going to tell Heatwave of this development so he can get his human allies ready to help you scan for that fragment. Just get ready to leave."

"Sure thing." Optimus said. "Just tell everyone I said hi, will you?"

"I will." Ratchet answered.


	9. The plan

After purging the Allspark fragment from the unexpected taint of the Dark Spark, Optimus and Prowl opted to simply have a sitdown. It was actually more Prowl's idea since he wanted to watch the birds returning to the trees after the pollinators had been deactivated. Optimus simply entertained him as he held onto the Allspark fragment, seeing from the corner of his eye another automaton robot dutifully sweeping up the pollinator drones.

It was an odd world. Ratchet had confessed that the robots had been made from reverse-engineering Megatron's head. In light of that news Optimus had not opted to ask about the nature of Unicron, afraid that he played even bigger role on Earth in this world than in his own. But given how Prowl reacted to the presence of the Dark Spark and how unfamiliar he was to it, Optimus could assume that the two-wheeler did not have any experience with Unicron, and hopefully wouldn't have it in the future.

The moment of tranquility was broken as the communications squawked and birds Optimus had not been aware of flew off, making him flinch a bit in reflex, expecting another attack.

"Prowl here." Prowl said on his comms. Ratchet had patched Optimus through so he could listen in or even join in on the conversation.

"Tell me that you two are at the park." Ratchet said in an exasperated tone, far rougher and with less patience than the Ratchet of his world. It was something that Optimus had yet to get used to.

"We are." Optimus answered.

"I hope you've dealt with it already because Sentinel Prime is on his way, convinced that the Decepticons are to blame." Ratchet said. Prowl answered in affirmative before Optimus could, and then looked forwards. Optimus heard the noise in the engines shortly after.

"Seems that he's here already." Optimus said.

"Just try to get over here without provoking him." Ratchet groaned. "It's best that you don't explain, well, _you_ without backup."

"I don't believe we have any choice in the matter." Optimus said and stood up, immediately alert. Prowl stood up as well, his attention on the two cars that appeared and were on fast approach towards them. What he hadn't expected was the two cars transforming quickly and bringing up weapons. Without thinking he shifted himself so that he was between Prowl and the two cars, waiting for some identification of if those were friends or foes.

But as neither attacked Optimus got a closer look at them. The smaller, white mech he could recognize as some form of Jazz. Far less chest than his own Jazz but the lithe form and something about the face just told him that it was Jazz. The other he would have had harder time to recognize it Ratchet hadn't told him who it was. The color was there, the face was different. And Optimus could not mistake the scowl that was on his face.

"Just who are you?" Sentinel went right up to Optimus, clearly not intimidated by his size, and even though he had to look up he still exuded unwavering confidence in himself. Though to this degree it was more like blind arrogance. "I thought I was clued in to all Autobots that were on this backwards filthy organic planet, and I know all the Autobot warframes and you're not one of them."

"Sentinel Prime," Prowl stepped out from Optimus' protective cover, causing Sentinel to look at Prowl while Jazz still kept his optics on Optimus, unsure about the situation. "There was an accident during the construction of the space bridge. As Ratchet told you, Optimus Prime got lost in the multiverse. And this is the one that came instead."

Sentinel's scowl did not change at all as he snapped back to regard Optimus, then looked back at Prowl. "You are aware that we got some Decepticons on this planet right now, some that we've not seen before. Who's to say that this is not one of them and this isn't some sort of ploy to fool you all?"

"I believe I know what those Decepticons are after." Optimus then finally spoke. He wasn't used to being ignored as having all the attention on him came with the Prime title. But Sentinel's attitude towards Prowl and to him was grating on him.

"What are you waiting for, an applause for being able to think?" Sentinel said. "If you think you know something then you better tell me."

"There is an artifact back from my world." Optimus answered immediately. "I do not know if you have an equivalent in your world, but if you can imagine a lesser version of the Allspark you know, and then imagine its opposite. That's the short version. Where the Allspark brings life, the Dark Spark can only bring death and ruin." Optimus opted not to say anything about how it could empower others and those powerful enough that held it could bend others to their will, as he felt that that sort of information would just make things worse would Sentinel be aware of it.

"And what evidence do you have of it coming over with you? Don't tell me you were stupid enough to be carrying something like that around. But then again, Optimus Prime, our Optimus Prime has been guilty of doing a lot of stupid things." Sentinel turned around, apparently already believing that there was no proof that Optimus could offer him.

Optimus opened his palm, revealing the Allspark fragment he and Prowl had recovered. "I felt its presence inside of this fragment. Prowl said that the robot drones were behaving with more maliciousness and intelligence than other machinery that have had an Allspark fragment in them."

"To be honest Prowl here believes that the simpler organic lifeforms here have some intelligence in them, I wouldn't put that much stock in what he would say about those kind of things." Sentinel did a short dismissive gesture towards Prowl, who just stood there and took the abuse like nothing. Or more like it was something he was used to. Optimus thought back to how he had treated the war veteran Ratchet in the conversation they had before, and how Ratchet held back the insults until after their communication.

"Very well Sentinel." Optimus was having enough of Sentinel's behaviour. "If you do not take my warning seriously, then so be it. I'll find and get rid of the Dark Spark, and if those Decepticons happen to be in my way I'll deal with them as well, free of charge."

"Why you-" Sentinel's face contorted in anger and Optimus thought for a second that he was about to draw his weapons again. "You will address me as Prime, do you understand?"

"I won't." Optimus answered without skipping a beat. "I won't do it for two reasons. The Prime rank in this world is tied to the chain of command. I am not part of it and thus you can't order me around. I will however do not harm this planet or any Autobots on it. Secondly, where I'm from the rank of Prime is actually bestowed upon one by Cybertron itself, and Prime is the religious and spiritual leader of our people, and is now the leader of the Autobots."

Sentinel, finally, didn't have anything to say as he regarded Optimus with suspicion. Optimus felt that it was well deserved given his outburst. The others clearly did not respect him and he was not about to do the same until he saw something to prove him wrong. So far, he saw that Sentinel deserved the level of respect he got from the others.

"When the spacebridge is fixed I'll see to that you get sent back home." Sentinel then managed to say. "With or without that silly Dark Spark of yours. I don't need the headache you're giving me right now, I got enough to deal with when it comes to the Decepticons and I don't need the added stress of babysitting you as well." Without as much as a dismissal Sentinel turned around and drove off. Jazz, who had been a silent audience in the whole matter gave Optimus and Prowl a very sympathetic look before he transformed and followed.

When the two were finally out of eyesight Prowl seemed to finally relax, allowing himself to drop his stiff posture he had when confronted with Sentinel. Optimus looked over to him as Prowl turned to face Optimus as well.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you introduce yourself as Optimus Prime when you came through the spacebridge?" Prowl asked.

Optimus took a careful glance around himself, looking to see if there were any prying eyes around to overhear, but no one was around to hear the two talking.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't talk about this around the others." Optimus said. "Especially to Sentinel."

"I have one question. If a Prime is the leader of the Autobots, or even a leader of Cybertron, was there a Sentinel Prime?" Prowl asked.

"There was a Sentinel Zeta Prime." Optimus quickly answered. "My predecessor."

"And what happened to him?" Prowl asked.

Optimus was silent for a while, looking back to where Sentinel had driven off with Jazz. His hands twitched as he recalled the memories, wanting to form a fist. "Megatron and the uprising of the Decepticons were merely a symptom. Sentinel Zeta Prime created the cause."

Now it was Prowl's time to be silent as he digested the information, then he transformed and Optimus followed his lead. "We should get back to base, get checked out by Ratchet." Prowl said. "But regarding the Dark Spark, do you have any leads on it?" He hesitantly asked.

"I cannot say where it is specifically." Optimus answered. "But there is one thing. When we were trying to keep the Dark Spark from the Decepticons, Shockwave, with the help of a higher insecticon, was able to see through our subterfuge. It is possible that the insecticons are somehow attuned to the Dark Spark."

"Insecticon?" Prowl asked. "Well, if we have to ask Blackarachnia, then I hope you have a large bugswatter with you."


	10. Slight misunderstanding

It didn't feel good to be leaving without the others around. Optimus had wanted to at least say goodbye to the others but Ratchet seemed to think that the sooner he was away the sooner he could get on fixing the groundbridge. At least the team Optimus was going to was ready for him. Apparently they were all on some sort of island and because of that Optimus had to be visibly moved to the island, driven on a ferry that would take him to it so that the human partners would not have to explain the sudden presence of yet another firetruck robot.

Optimus waited at the warehouse he had been so unceremoniously groundbridged to. Waiting in his firetruck mode, he ended up counting the rivets on the walls until the doors opened, admitting in a police cruiser. Optimus stayed put, watching as an older gray-haired human and a dark-skinned man stepped out and the cruiser transformed. This prompted Optimus to transform as well before the human would get any closer.

"Optimus Prime?" The human asked as he approached Optimus.

"That's me." Optimus answered. "Though I think it would be better if you would just call me Optimus. I don't think I have what it takes to be called Prime in your world."

"That would be prudent." Chase said. "That would allow us to distinguish between you and our Optimus Prime without resorting to long explanations or adjectives to differ between you two in conversation." Optimus simply nodded, already feeling it to be far too long explanation.

"My name is Charlie Burns. I'm the chief of the emergency services on Griffin Rock. This is Chase, my partner and part of the Rescue Bots, and this is Doctor Greene, he'll be driving you for appearance sake."

"Nice to meet you, all of you." Optimus said.

"And it is nice to meet you. You can just call me Doc Greene, that's what everyone calls me." Doc Greene smiled. "I was told that there was some change of plans?"

"That's right." Optimus said, noticing Chase transforming and opening the doors for Chief Burns to enter. He followed suit, allowing Doc Greene to enter his main cabin. "I brought something with me when I came to your world, and now the Decepticons have it. Everyone agrees that we need to get it back before they figure out how to use it."

The trip itself was uneventful. The ride on the ferry was smooth and without problems, though he wasn't comfortable with the silence. At least the grip Doc Greene had on his steering wheel was soft and loose, ready to let go in case Optimus needed to take a sharp turn. Even if Sari and Isaac Sumdac had been the only ones in his cabin so far Doc Greene was not an unwelcome presence. Optimus followed closely after Chase, heading to the middle of the small town. On a large lot he saw a pretty spectacular firehouse, far larger than those he had seen in Detroit. This was clearly the central hub of the emergency services here, aside from a hospital.

"Welcome to Griffin Rock Optimus Prime." Chief Burns said as he stepped out of Chase. Optimus and Chase transformed and Optimus had some time to look around. The inside was pretty roomy and had a tall ceiling, tall enough to be comfortable for him. Chase was just about his own size. He noticed Charlie Burns going over to a console and flipped a lever on it. Optimus felt the floor sink for a moment before it descended at a level pace. He looked at Chase but he was calm, so this was probably normal.

"This is basically a "safe zone" for you and the rescue bots. The only ones who know about this are those who know about you being aliens from outer space. You can be yourself here." Charlie Burns said. "Heatwave is already downstairs and is ready to give you the proper rundown on how you should act when in public."

"What about the scan we need to do?" Optimus asked, then felt the elevator stop jarringly and with a loud bang. He looked forwards, noticing another bot his size. Next to him was a human child, who ran over to Optimus to look up at him. Optimus smiled, slightly awkward over the whole thing.

"Optimus Prime? I'm Heatwave, the leader of the Rescue Bots here." The red bot introduced himself with an extended hand Optimus accepted.

"Just call me Optimus." Optimus accepted the extended hand.

"And I'm Cody." The human child introduced himself. "I expected you to be taller, a lot taller."

"Believe me, I'm one of the taller bots back from where I come from." Optimus smiled. "It's been different to look up at others for a change."

"You won't have to crane your neck while around here. Everyone's the same size. Well, except for Trex but you won't have to deal with it, hopefully." Heatwave said. Optimus had gotten off the lift and he noticed it going back up. "Blades and Boulder will be coming soon. And you've already met Chase." Heatwave continued. "From what Ratchet told us you'll be mostly working with Doc Greene and Boulder back at their lab." Heatwave looked over to Doc Greene. "You got everything set up?"

"Not yet." Doc Greene admitted. "It was a bit of a short notice, but Frankie is working on setting things up."

Optimus nodded, then saw how Heatwave was looking him over. He turned to Heatwave fully and stood up slightly straighter, silently calling out Heatwave on his behaviour. Heatwave responded with a slight unnecessary cough.

"Erm, sorry about that." Heatwave said. "I couldn't help but notice, but do you have a firetruck for an alt-mode?"

"Yes." Optimus answered. "When we awoke on Earth the alt-modes that were scanned for us were of first-responder vehicles." Optimus answered. He was about to say more until he heard an alarm. However none of the others seemed to respond with nothing more than looking back at the large lift, no anxiety or agitation to be seen in them. Optimus noticed the two humans first, a woman in some sort of uniform he couldn't recognize, and another man with glasses. The two bots accompanying them came into full view as the lift lowered. Someone clearly working construction and the other -

Optimus jumped backwards the moment the rotors and thus the alt-mode registered to him. He quickly put a servo in front of the humans to shield them. But when he looked at Heatwave he only saw a look of confusion quickly turning to annoyance.

"It's only Boulder and Blades, what's the problem?" Heatwave asked, huffing a bit, clearly annoyed by the disastrous first impressions Optimus was making.

"Er, sorry about that." Optimus quickly straightened out, looking from Heatwave and over to Blades, who looked hurt by Optimus' sudden defensive behaviour, having seen that he was the cause of it. "It's just that, well, from where I come from, Autobots don't fly."

"Now there's a universe with common sense." Blades stepped off the elevator.

The green construction bot also stepped out of the elevator, trying to look as non-threatening as possible. "As Heatwave said, I'm Boulder, this is Blades. And here's my human partner Graham and Blades' partner, Dani."

"Greetings." Optimus said. "Sorry about that outburst."

"That's okay." Boulder said, and the others nodded in agreement.

"Being in a whole different world must be a bit confusing for you." Graham said.

"I admit that there has been a lot of confusion." Optimus said. "But the sooner they can get the groundbridge fixed the sooner I can get back home."

"Let's start with the basics first." Heatwave said. "Cody, how about you help me bring Optimus up to speed on how an autobot behaves around humans?"


	11. Name

Optimus was used to driving fast. He had to get to battle fast, he had to escape fast. There was nothing wrong with him when it came to speed and dexterity, be it in root mode or alt mode. Driving alongside him was Ratchet and Prowl. Bumblebee and Sari had stayed behind as both needed the recharge after taking the night shift. They had gotten reports from an astronomy lab that was on watch for micrometeors, telling that there were was a large object on a strange course for Earth, heading towards Detroit at a very specific angle. The official word was that the Autobots were there to assist should the meteoric event go badly though the object were probably not large enough to cause trouble.

Prowl had been very quick at telling everyone that he had a certain feeling about this event and Ratchet had been quick to dismiss him as if he was doing it all the time. However Ratchet had showed no reluctance in going with them to check it out. With updated data from the lab they knew where to go. In the rush they hadn't contacted Sentinel, but from what Optimus could gather from the others, that wasn't really too much of a bad thing. 

"There!" Prowl called out as a streak of fire illuminated the sky. For a moment the already bright noon sky became impossibly brighter as the object reached its apex in luminosity, trailing towards the ground only scant few miles away from them. There was however no boom accompanying when it should have crashed into the ground.

"Definitely not a meteor." Optimus said as he went even faster, threatening to leave Ratchet and Prowl behind wouldn't they be able to keep up. With the geographical knowledge of the local area he knew where they had landed.

And eventually he didn't see them following. The urgency of knowing that the Dark Spark was in this universe, coupled with the fact that there were Decepticons that were looking to use it made him go fast, made him rush into things. He had often done this approach, gone feet-first into dangerous situation and most of the time it had worked out.

Ratchet he could perhaps count on, but he was a war veteran who was clearly physically not there anymore, and Prowl, even with his training, hadn't gotten real fighting experience other than the one he had gotten on Earth. It felt a bit odd to know that a crew of Spacebridge technicians had held back Megatron and couple of Decepticons for that long, which made Optimus wonder if it was all because of this world's Optimus Prime.

As heat sensors became splashed with heavy reading Optimus slowed down and transformed. Slowly, carefully and quietly he made his way towards the heat source. Moving even more slowly now, he inched himself forwards, finally coming to where he was overlooking a small vale, seeing two Cybertronians standing there. One deep purple with long sharp horns and clearly an alt-mode of a space-worthy vessel, and the other smaller in brighter purple with yellow highlights, similarly built as Prowl but his face obscured strongly by a mask. The lighter one was stretching, apparently working out kinks in his body from traveling inside the other while the other was just standing and waiting.

"Earth, didn't think I'll be here again." The smaller one looked around in a middle of a stretch.

"So you've been here as well?" The taller one asked.

"Yep, chasing down minicons, you?" The smaller one asked.

"Earth was a central point in our war for resources." The taller one answered. "The Autobots took far greater likings to the natives than anyone would have expected."

Optimus was wondering what they were talking about. No mention of Energon, and minicons were not on his Earth at least. Both of them were unfamiliar to him, neither really fitting the profiles of Decepticons Optimus knew back on his world. But as he was about to hear the smaller one's answer, he heard a slight movement behind him. Turning just slightly he noticed Prowl and Ratchet moving carefully and quietly forwards. Optimus moved himself so they would also be able to see.

"That's them alright." Ratchet said. "The one with the yellows is Sideways, the other's Cyclonus."

Optimus simply nodded, and with a small gesture from his hand he asked for Ratchet to be quiet. Ratchet immediately complied and Prowl didn't say anything either. All three of them were still, hoping to catch what they were saying.

"Kinda funny though, other than the whole Allspark thing, Earth ain't special, this one at least. But I can feel it." Sideways said. "You sure you don't feel it?"

"I never felt his presence." Cyclonus answered. "It was Galvatron who knew him. Whatever you're feeling, I'm blind to it. Let's hope that your cackling scientist buffoon can feel it as well."

Optimus felt the frustration as the name they wanted to hear wasn't being said. Sideways seemed to be getting slightly annoyed at Cyclonus, but before he could chastise Cyclonus in any way, both of them froze and looked towards the entrance of the vale. Optimus followed their gaze, seeing familiar cars on fast approach. Sentinel and Jazz. He also heard the loud engine noises of fliers. The twin jets that he hadn't seen before but Ratchet had clued him in on them.

"This is bad." Optimus said.

"Worst case scenario, the one who called them is going to retreat and we can never get rid of that anti-allspark thing." Ratchet said as Sentinel's team surrounded the two Decepticons. Optimus didn't wait, transformed and drove straight towards the standoff, and Ratchet and Prowl followed closely behind.

"Optimus? What are you doing here?!" Sentinel Prime yelled, looking away from the Decepticons. And as the twins also looked towards the unexpected support, Cyclonus raised his laser gun and fired at Jazz who was forced to duck from the blasts. Sideways joined in with Cyclonus, firing a missile towards Jetfire, forcing Jetstorm to react as well.

"I could say the same thing Optimus Prime." Sideways said.

"I came here to know who is pulling the strings!" Optimus called and went towards Sideways. But as he fired on him the shots just went straight through him.

"It can't be a hologram, we've watched them the whole time!" Prowl called.

"It must be!" Sentinel said, attacking Cyclonus who was thankfully solid. Though Cyclonus, apparently very experienced with fighting, didn't even seem to put up any effort as evading Sentinel's attack, striking few times but efficiently. And even when Jazz came in Cyclonus didn't seem to be even worried.

"Jetfire! Wash the whole place!" Sentinel barked. Optimus froze as fighting the phantom who was somehow able to land a hit on Optimus when Optimus' swords always went through him. He saw how Jetfire backed away from the fighting along with Jetstorm, and then there was an even bigger wave of heat sweeping over Optimus.

And he realized just how literal Jetfire's name was.

"We must not waste any time with these gnats!" Sideways shouted as Jetfire seemed to conjure flames out of nowhere. Cyclonus moved almost too quickly for Optimus to notice, jumping towards Sideways, pushing Optimus down on the ground as grabbing Sideways and taking to the sky.

Optimus barely managed to get back in time before the fire reached him. Looking around he saw that Ratchet and Prowl had also escaped in the nick of time, but Sentinel and Jazz were well out of the way of danger.

"What was the big idea?" Sentinel spat out. "If you hadn't been in the way we would have arrested those 'cons!"

"And they would not have easily given up the identity of their commander." Optimus said. "By the time you would have gotten that it might be too late to act."

"Who cares about some decepticon lowlife?" Sentinel said. "We would have found him eventually, holed up in some cave with mad ideas. Megatron is gone, and the Decepticons are directionless. Easy pickings. Except now you've let those two escape straight to their _"commander"_."

"Sentinel, this is bigger than your war." Optimus said. "Even I know that these two do not originate any more from this universe than I am. Given what has happened so far, everything seems to point towards something that won't just affect Earth, or Cybertron or even just this universe."

"Well, remind me never to visit your universe, if everyone there is as big of a lugnut as you are." Sentinel said. "Jazz, Jetfire, Jetstorm, scout the surrounding area, find those Decepticons." Sentinel turned around, all of his team transforming and splitting up. Optimus, Prowl and Ratchet were left in the vale.

"That could have gone better." Ratchet said.

"That is an understatement." Optimus answered. "I'm beginning to wonder if it is personal."

"I believe he's like this to everyone." Prowl said.

"So Ratchet," Optimus turned to the medic. "Cackling scientist buffoon."

"None that I know." Ratchet answered.

"But there is one who can tell us." Prowl said.

=================

"You keep him in isolation?" Optimus asked as he walked carefully along the human.

"Ever since he discovered he has a voice he has been nothing but trouble." Captain Fanzone answered. "Convinced couple of my guys to let him go but I stopped them in time. Now we got a camera with no mic trained on him in case of funny stuff."

"If everything goes well, then we'll deliver him to the proper authorities back on Cybertron." Ratchet said. "And then you won't have to worry about him anymore."

"I've stopped worrying about him for a long time." Fanzone said. "It's all of you Autobots that is giving me gray hairs now." He came to a large door, tall enough to admit Ratchet through without any problems but Optimus would have to bend over to get through. Fanzone went to a large padlock, opening it with a simple key.

"He can't move, he can't become a robot. But he's armed with his voice and that's a very dangerous weapon." Fanzone said as the two went inside. He didn't follow. Optimus nodded in response of his warning just before he went inside.

"Well well well, I got visitors!" The small compact truck said in a suave tone.

"Swindle, I'm here to make a deal." Optimus Prime said.

"Well well well!" Swindle said. "I'm always up for negociations, but what's in it for me?"

"I'll deliver you to the Cybertronian authorities, and you won't be staying here on Earth indefinitely." Optimus said.

"Oh, I'll not be staying here indefinitely." Swindle tisked. "Everyone wants to make a deal, and eventually I'll be free to do what I want. You don't have anything I would want."

"All I need is an identity of a Decepticon and where he might be here on Earth." Optimus said. "You must have known what happened to Megatron when he crash-landed here on Earth. Found by a human dissected, analyzed, and a whole technological empire made from his body. For absolutely free."

"Imagine if that's going to happen to you. The last thing you can ever sell, but you won't see a single shanix." Ratchet grinned.

"You wouldn't." Swindle immediately answered. "I know Autobots, have dealt with them from time to time but they would never let this happen to anyone."

"If you might have noticed, I am not a regular Autobot." Optimus leaned in. "And Ratchet here has seen the war and has become _jaded_ to it. You are looking at the two who would not hesitate to leave you to be dissected." He stilled himself as well as he could as making the threat he knew he couldn't follow through. But Swindle did not know that.

"Ah, are you from the Tyran cluster?" Swindle asked, but Optimus declined to answer, not knowing what he was asking but hoped that the silence would be effective enough.

"And you will hold up your end of the bargain, should we strike a deal?" Swindle then asked.

"You can perhaps spend years to find a human foolish enough to release you after you've been gutted." Ratchet said. "But at least among Autobots you know how to make a deal with them, and might escape much sooner with a lot more of your parts still inside your body."

"And who exactly is it that you want to know about?" Swindle asked. "I mean, it's not like there are just twenty of Decepticons around."

"He might be connected somehow to the multiverse." Optimus said. "And Cyclonus called him _"Cackling scientist buffoon"_. Does that sound familiar enough?"

And Swindle went quiet. Optimus resisted the urge to look back at Ratchet in confusion. Just as he was about to ask again, Swindle made a low noise.

"How about you offer me a ride back to Cybertron, and tell the ride to leave today or at least as soon as possible?"

"I will try to make that clear." Optimus answered.

Swindle again went silent for a moment, but the wait for an answer was far quicker than before. "Good enough."

That was enough to make Ratchet flinch. Optimus could also surmise that this was unusual from Swindle, as the Swindle from his own universe would also not be eager to accept mere promises.

"His name is Tarantulas." Swindle said. "He claims to be a Decepticon but his allegiances are suspect. Against Megatron's orders he and Sideways went to Alpha Q's realm and did something there which apparently somehow changed the names of two of the planets there. And worlds are known to disappear where he's at, be it ordered by Megatron or not."

"And you believe this planet to be in danger?" Optimus asked.

"I know it." Swindle said. "As for where he might have set up shop here, I don't know. But if you get me in contact with couple of my friends, I can fish that out, but for a price."

"We're done dealing with you." Optimus said. "I'll notify Sentinel Prime that you're here and he'll take you away to his vessel." He turned around and with a simple pre-arranged knock on the door he and Ratchet were let out. Swindle didn't even try to have the last word in the exchange.

After getting out of the impound lot in vehicle form, Ratchet was the first one to speak. "So then, think he was telling the truth?"

"Possible." Optimus answered. "I don't know a Tarantulas in my world, so I don't know how dangerous he can be."

"Right now we might as well assume he's got some way to blow up the planet whenever he wants." Ratchet said. "Or just assume he's a looney with few diodes missing."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear I did decide to put Tarantulas in the story before Sins of the Wreckers came out.


	12. White Noise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the wait.

Strangely enough, Optimus didn't find himself to be much of a help. Graham, Boulder and Doc Greene were more than capable of continuing the work of figuring out how to detect the Allspark fragment after Optimus provided them with the frequency. Sure, he was asked to chip in from time to time but it felt like those were just automated answers, nothing he would really work at on figuring out.

The plan was simple. Megatron had an Allspark fragment and after Optimus described what it could do no one was going to let Megatron be able to figure out how to turn it into a weapon. Sending Optimus back to his own world, with the Allspark fragment, came next. And that was what Ratchet was working on thousands of miles away from Optimus' current location.

"How about now Graham?" Doc Greene asked as he did some adjustments on the prototype sensor.

"The white noise has not reduced one iota." Graham answered. "Boulder?"

"I am still trying to figure out the source of it." Boulder answered, then looked up as Optimus approached him. "It's kind of funny, even though our Allspark is lightyears away somehow either our sensor is malfunctioning or we're picking up the radiation from our Allspark."

"Maybe I can help?" Optimus asked and went over to Graham to look at the readouts.

"I don't know what could be causing this sort of interference." Graham said. "Either this Allspark thing is basically everywhere or there is something similar on Earth that's giving off some similar signature, well, other than the Allspark fragment we're looking for."

"There is no scientific evidence that Gaia exists, nor any leylines or anything like that." Doc Greene said. "However I am not dismissing it outright, I just want to be able to see it."

"What's Gaia?" Optimus asked.

"The spirit of Earth, as some would put it, comes from ancient Greek mythology." Graham said. "In modern times it's more what we call the theory of how the whole ecosystem on Earth is here to either regulate Earth into a perfect balance for all, or how all organisms work on improving their environment. But I'm with Doc on this, there has to be something else that's causing this, or we might have found some evidence for Gaia."

Optimus looked at the readouts again. The wavelengths of the interference was both regular and irregular. He frowned as he thought he saw something familiar in it. Tracing his finger on the screen, following the own jumps and leaps from his own spark, he drew some of the tops and dips of the readouts as they came.

"What are you doing?" Boulder asked as he approached, drawn by Optimus' behaviour.

"I think I'm causing the interference, or at least part of it." Optimus said and snaked a data-cable from him, plugging it in the computer. "Shortly after I came on Earth, my Earth, I, for the lack of the better word, offlined. And I was resurrected with a part of the Allspark. Here's my spark frequency, maybe you can find some parallels." He said to Doc Greene.

"Of course." Doc Greene said and worked on the console. "There, I've created a filter that takes out your interference. Let's get more data and see what we'll get now." He let the program run for couple of minutes, the white noise still there but now at regular intervals with more order to it rather than the erratic spark frequency of Optimus that wouldn't still unless he was in deep recharge. He wasn't sure how Doc Greene could actually map out the spark frequency like that but it worked.

"Graham, could you maybe change that new white noise reading to audio output?" Boulder asked. "There is something strange about it."

"Not a problem." Graham said, and with just few button presses, and increasing the volume of the speakers in the lab, the white noise became a literal noise. Optimus listened to it, finding nothing that would really help with increasing his understanding of it. He turned to Boulder, about to ask why he had done that, but his words stopped dead in his vocalizer when he saw Boulder looking anxious, staring forwards and upwards towards one of the speakers in the lab.

"Boulder, are you okay?" Optimus asked.

"You don't feel it?" Boulder asked, only to be met with slightly confused stares from Optimus, Doc Greene and Graham. "It feels malevolent. Bad."

"I don't." Optimus said, and even before he could signal Graham to cut off the audio Graham was already on it, turning off the audio generation of the interference. It had immediate effect, Boulder seemingly releasing tension in his body that he didn't even know he had, instantly relaxing as if he had been bound by some sort of spell.

"Are you okay Boulder?" Graham asked, clearly worried for his robotic partner.

"Much better now, thanks Graham." Boulder said. "Feels odd that only I got worried by it."

"You are the only Autobot here that's native to this world, I mean universe." Optimus said. "Do you have any source of this remaining interference?" He turned to Doc Greene and Graham. If this was somehow worrying Boulder then it was a possible threat to them.

"None." Doc Greene said. "But it does resemble the micro-frequency signals that were picked up at Kola. Using that data I can make an additional filter so we can isolate that interference and then we can go into testing."

"What's Kola?" Optimus asked.

"It was a Russian experiment." Doc Greene said. "They dug deep down into the earth and did few experiments there."

"If Gaia does exist, I'm not sure if I want to meet them." Boulder said.

"Don't worry Boulder." Graham said. "They shut down Kola years ago and any other deep holes are made by oil companies."

"As interesting as it would be to check out that signal in light of new evidence, causing international incidents is not on my bucket list." Doc Greene said. "Nor is angering big corporations there as well." He took up a small device that had been on the sidelines for most of the time, and Optimus recognized it as the "fake" Allspark they were going to use to test if the background noise filters were too aggressive. He turned it on, and immediately Optimus felt a faint flutter within his spark, which both recognized the Allspark and recognized the fact that it was fake.

"Graham?" Doc Greene asked.

"I'm picking it up. Just couple of more tests and we can put the software into our CubeSat network." Graham said.

"Cubesat?" Optimus asked.

"We got access to several cheap CubeSat satellites that we can change the software of." Graham said. "With a little help from Boulder we managed to miniaturize several of the components and right now our satellites can do pretty much whatever we ask it of, including looking for the Allspark fragment."

"It's still something that isn't really in the scope of the satellites, so when we do detect that fragment we're still dealing with around 500 square miles that needs to be scanned." Doc Greene said. "And that's why we're going to put this baby in something portable that can search within that area."

"I believe we're going to need the help of the main Autobot team for that." Boulder said. "Especially if the Decepticons have the fragment. Optimus, well, our Optimus Prime, always wants us protected from the Decepticons as we're non-combatants. No matter what Heatwave says about it." He chuckled.

Optimus nodded, glad to see that after hearing the signal he was apparently back to his old self. He was going to ask Heatwave to keep an eye on Boulder for any oddities in the next few days. Heatwave would be a better judge of Boulder's behaviour than Optimus would ever be.

He recalled his own team, leading them, knowing how he could spot when any of them were having trouble, even when it was Prowl. Here, he was the new one, learning how the others worked together, the oddities and the quirks of the others. Because that was what they were always going to be. Others.

"Optimus, are you alright?" Doc Greene asked, breaking Optimus out of his trance.

"I guess I'm just homesick." Optimus admitted to him.

"You can always get a break if you want." Doc Greene said. "You look like you could need it."

"Maybe I should." Optimus said. "I've not had the time to ask about it, but did I see a giant robot dinosaur when I arrived?"


	13. Unraveling the web

Optimus Prime felt a bit of frustration. They had a name of the main Decepticon behind whatever that was happening. They knew of two other Decepticons that were called to him, and apparently came alone. Yet they couldn't be found, and they had no idea of their whereabouts. It was apparent that the main Decepticon force on Earth was somehow masking their signals, but if that meant if Tarantulas and his partners were now with the other Decepticons or not they didn't know. Ratchet's main theory was that since Sideways and Cyclonus were both of different universes it was possible that Tarantulas was as well, and they never really showed up on the scanners like the Decepticons that hailed from this universe.

"I find it very interesting indeed that you chose to keep the knowledge of Swindle's whereabouts away from me." Sentinel Prime said to Ratchet and Optimus, clearly keeping his anger in check as he was talking to the two Autobots who weren't really going to be caving in on him, no matter what he thought of his own importance.

"We let you know now." Ratchet said in a sarcastic tone. "And you're just going to dismiss his warning about this new Decepticon?"

"If this so-called Tarantulas is interested in Earth and the Dark Spark, then so be it." Sentinel said dismissively. "And you," He poked Optimus on the chest as he looked up at him, glaring. "Didn't you say you would be dealing with that? 'Free of charge', wasn't that your choice of words?"

"I am here in a world much different from my own." Optimus answered as he met Sentinel's glare with one of his own. "And I do not recognize my foes, even when they stand in front of me."

"Is that a threat?" Sentinel dropped his volume, his arms crossed, silently telling Optimus to take stood so low to take the bait. Optimus didn't budge.

"It is not." Optimus said. "I only ask for assistance in this matter. Tarantulas plans something with the Dark Spark, Swindle believes it is a threat to the point where he begged for a ride home."

"And I say we let him. If Tarantulas destroys this miserable mudball planet infested by organics, then so be it, he might even take down the other Decepticons with him." Sentinel said.

"I don't think it's going to be that simple." Ratchet said. "But if you don't want to get involved, then so be it. We'll find a way to save this planet and probably the universe as well." He turned around. Optimus followed him a second later.

"Was there no way to get through to him?" Optimus asked Ratchet when they were out of the ship.

"Sentinel Prime is a hard-case." Ratchet said. "And frankly you're not used to dealing with someone saying no just because of their own personal feelings."

Optimus was silent, trying to think of previous exchanges with his own team. He listened to every member of it, he took everything in consideration, he thought things through with input from others. He did at points hear his plans being denied, but not without any good reasons.

"When someone rejects my thoughts and input on matters, I'm used to getting a reason why." Optimus said, coming to the correct conclusion.

"Sentinel Prime is an egotistical fool that only looks out for himself and doesn't want to all the work he's supposed to. I think that's a good enough reason to explain it." Ratchet said.

"Ego in this form didn't last long during the war." Optimus said, transforming and Ratchet followed suit.

"You're telling me." Ratchet answered and drove towards the Autobot base.

Optimus excused himself, not wanting to go empty-handed to the base with nothing to do. He went out of the city, out of the suburbs and into the wild and heavily forested landscape. Even all the way over here he found the minute tugs that the Allspark fragments were generating, calling to his own Matrix of Leadership as they seemed to sense some kinship between each other. But it was nothing but a ghost of a feeling, not good enough to pinpoint a specific location of a single fragment. This world was so different from his own, yet there was something familiar in it.

Optimus focused on finding a different sort of familiarity, of the familiarity that he had once been exposed to that had taken a lot out of him when he had fought against it. He recalled the early terrorcons that Megatron had generated from the Dark Spark, far more intelligent yet slaves to Megatron's will than the later dark energon terrorcons that were only a threat in numbers.

As he was focusing for that long he was giving into the illusion of sensing the Dark Spark instead of just remembering how it felt attacking him, he did a bit of a system reset, to get his senses in order and abandon this futile search using his own spark and the Matrix of Leadership.

But then he heard it. It was only a fraction of a second that he had spare to react, and it was barely enough. He avoided the sticky webbing that would have landed on him and stuck his right arm to his body. Quickly he shielded his face with his battlemask, leaving the weapons still untransformed as he assessed the danger. His assailant wasn't to be seen, but he knew that didn't mean he was in the clear.

It was when he realized whom he knew that would shoot webbing that he looked up, seeing a dark shape in the treetops, lunging at him with clear intent. Optimus jumped backwards, barely missing a tree that if he had hit it he would have stumbled. Medium sized, lithe form stood in front of him for a fraction of a second, allowing Optimus Prime to observe it to assess the threat it posed to him, until it jumped away back into the trees.

"I've not seen you around Autobot, but you do look astonishingly familiar." A feminine voice spoke. Coupled with the attack and the slightly familiar silhouette Optimus had glimpsed he knew he was probably dealing with this universe's version of Arachnid.

"Who are you?" Optimus asked, looking around hoping to see her before she would strike again. He was vulnerable, and any call for backup meant that he was going to be even more vulnerable for an attack.

"I think a lady deserves to know first." She asked, allowing Optimus to pinpoint here whereabouts but he turned around only to see just the trees.

"My name is Optimus Prime, and I am not here willingly. I seek the Dark Spark to banish it from this world, and I seek a way home." Optimus said. And with that he heard a loud noise, deliberate noise by his side. He turned to see that it was indeed someone like Arachnid.

"Great, I found someone even more egotistical than Sentinel." Optimus could practically hear her eyes rolling. "Now then, you Autobots like this excuse of a planet, right? Right now there is this mad scientist from another world who thinks I'm his crush from his world. And whatever he's planning it is probably more than just bad."

"Tarantulas." Optimus said.

"So you have done your homework." She said. "But I'm sure that if you knew where he was you wouldn't be hanging around here meditating like that other Autobot. I don't know who he is, but he became part organic willingly, so that's already a pretty good indicator of how much processor damage he has. He's nothing but a creep who isn't even loyal to the Decepticons, and believe me, I know."

"What do you get out of this?" Optimus asked, knowing well enough that nothing came for free, especially from a Decepticon.

"You help me get rid of a creep." She said. "And in return you get to save this planet, though I don't know how fair trade that is."

Before Optimus could react he heard the shot, then immediately afterwards sticky webbing landed on him, pinning him to a nearby tree. He fought against the bonds as he saw the Decepticon, someone strikingly similar to Arachnid, approaching him. He went still, ready for a blow that never came.

"Here." She said and put some sort of data drive on the webbing, sticking it to him. "That's the location he gave me. He's far too trusting that fool. And if you see Optimus Prime, the real Optimus Prime, tell him that we still got unfinished business." She said, then transforming and leaving Optimus in his bind.

Optimus waited few moments, fighting against the webbing in the meanwhile. When he was sure she was gone, he opened up the coms to the others.

"This is Optimus, I require help at my location." He said, knowing very well he would not hear the end of it should Bumblebee be part of the rescue team.


	14. Perspective

Optimus found himself yet again with nothing to do. Boulder and Graham were working on the portable scanner while Doc Green and Frankie were working in a so-called Cleanroom on getting the example satellite to accept their new programming and work as intended. Optimus walked around a bit, feeling just how confined he was in the laboratory, despite that there was this whole wing for large-scale tests that easily roomed the whole Rescue Bots team and few more.

He was about to make the fifty-third lap around the lab when he heard a small beep of a noise coming from Graham. He saw how Graham clicked on a small communicator on his shirt.

"Graham here, what's happening?" He asked.

"It's Heatwave." The reply came pretty clearly. "Do you think you got that scanner ready? Wheeljack's landing soon and Chief Burns has given him a small clearing where no one's going to be at. The location should be already sent to the Greene's computers."

Graham stood up and went over to a nearby terminal, looking things up on it. "I got it Heatwave." Graham said. "We're just about to wrap this up anyway."

"We're going to have to know how to connect the scanner to that ship, so whatever we got left can be done there." Boulder said.

"Can I come with?" Optimus asked.

"It's probably going to be your last stop here on Griffin Rock." Heatwave said. "Doc Greene said he's just about to upload the new programming to the satellite network, so he'll be out and ready to cover you from prying eyes in no time. We'll be joining you soon."

"Heatwave is wrong, I just finished it." Doc Greene said as he stripped off the protective suit. "I'll take you there now. I might have only known you for a short time, but I can see you need to stretch your legs, or should I say tires?"

"'Legs' are fine." Optimus smiled, waiting for Doc Greene to put away the suit before transforming, keeping a door open for him.

"We'll join you in few minutes, we just need to close this up and secure it." Graham said as Doc Greene hopped in. 

"We'll see you there." Optimus said. Doc Greene apparently came prepared and had the map up on a tablet, directing Optimus through surprisingly long winding roads on a small island. After a while the road gave way to forest, forcing Optimus to change to his robot mode and go the rest of the way on foot. Mindful of Doc Greene, the hike took a while as he didn't move as fast as he wanted.

Then he saw the clearing, and a small space-worthy vessel with a large bot waiting outside of it with his servos crossed. Well, everyone around him were large, so he quickly determined he was actually medium sized compared to the others. He was looking directly at Optimus, clearly having heard him coming from mile away or more.

"Wheeljack?" Optimus asked as he approached him.

"The one and only." Wheeljack answered. "So, you're the misplaced Optimus Prime?"

"I think it would be better if you just addressed me as Optimus." Optimus said, not feeling the title befitting to him.

"Any particular reason for it?" Wheeljack asked, seemingly genuinely curious but Optimus did pick on that there was something more behind that question.

"I just command a spacebridge repair crew." Optimus said.

Wheeljack seemed to about to say something, then leaned back on the ship as whatever he was about to say was aborted by his own will. "Not that bad though." Wheeljack said.

"So what is your story in particular?" Optimus asked, wanting to divert the topic to anything else but being compared to the actual Optimus Prime of this world. "Why didn't I see you back at Autobot base?" He asked, eyeing the swords on Wheeljack's back which were most certainly not decorations.

"I'm not part of Team Prime." Wheeljack said. "I'm more of a loner. But I'll put in effort to help them from time to time. I know the location of several energon mines the Decepticons are operating, and once the Decepticons have abandoned them, I help with the recovery effort of the remainder of the energon there. And now I'm helping with locating some sort of artifact from your world?" Wheeljack asked, then looked towards where Optimus had come from, his stance tensing a bit while the arms flexed slightly, ready to move to grab the swords of his back should the worst come to light.

But it were just Boulder and Graham, bringing the scanner with them. Doc went to greet them and Wheeljack's subtle stance relaxed just a bit, returning the greetings and watching as the trio approached his ship. Wheeljack waited a bit before walking to them, Optimus tagging along.

Again everyone but Optimus were working. Wheeljack helped with mounting the scanner while last minute tests were being done. But while they were working Optimus thought he heard an engine approaching and turned to see who. He didn't have to wait long, seeing Heatwave approaching with Chief Burns.

"How is it going?" Heatwave asked as he and Optimus went over to the ship.

"We're just about to be done." Boulder said. "Wheeljack, could you maybe double check on the connection to the console in your ship?"

"Of course." Wheeljack said and went inside.

Heatwave then turned to Optimus. "Well, if everything goes well this might be the last time we'll see you." Heatwave said, his hand extended towards Optimus.

Optimus took it and shook his hand. "I'm sorry for the short stay, I wish I could have gotten to know you better. It just feels like I'm being bounced from place to place."

"I was nice getting to know you." Heatwave said. "If we had the time I would have asked to compare notes on fire-fighting here on this planet."

"Likewise." Optimus said. "You got a great team and fine leadership skills." Optimus looked over to Boulder who was apparently communicating with Wheeljack through comms.

"Well, I wish my teammates would be able to see that as well." He said. "Sometimes it's like wrangling turbofoxes."

"You're telling me." Optimus said, then saw how the door to Wheeljack's ship opened up, and Wheeljack waved to Optimus to get on board.

"Last call." Heatwave said as he looked at Wheeljack for a moment before turning to Optimus. "Just take care of yourself out there. I'm sure that your own team back home is missing you."

"Thank you." Optimus said. "Give my regards to Blades and Chase for me, will you?"

"Sure thing." Heatwave said and Optimus turned around, with a short goodbye to Graham and Boulder he stepped inside the ship. It was small on the outside and small on the inside, giving him the first sensation of claustrophobia ever since he came to this world.

"I know it isn't much, but welcome to the Jackhammer." Wheeljack said as he closed the hatch. "The co-pilot chair is the one on the right, there's energon in the storage locker next to it if you're thirsty."

"Thank you." Optimus said, forgoing the energon for now as he took a seat. Wheeljack finished sealing off the hatch and joined Optimus, taking the main seat. With only few more words to those on the ground, everyone backed off from the ship to allow the Jackhammer enough clearance for takeoff. It was a large kick as the Jackhammer went into the air and then blasted off.

Optimus saw how Wheeljack chose a location far up north. "They already got a reading?" He asked.

"Seems that no one is wasting time when it comes to the 'Cons having their hand on a dangerous weapon." Wheeljack said. "I'm connected to the satellite network and they indicate a reading here." Wheeljack traced a rather large section of far-up North America. "Apparently the Decepticons don't want that Allspark fragment on board their ship."

"The fragments have already given my team some grief back in Detroit." Optimus said. "I wonder what they're doing right now? Probably much better with someone with actual leadership experience now in charge." He vented heavily to reset some of his systems.

"That's frag and you know it." Wheeljack said. "Ratchet clued me in on your situation, how you never got in the war and such. Let me tell you, Optimus Prime probably doesn't know what to do with your teammates."

"What makes you say that?" Optimus asked.

"Here, in this world, we've been living the war for so long that several of us are going to end up very confused if it turns out that we survive to see the war end." Wheeljack said. "I certainly am not going to know what to do with myself once the war is over, once the rebuilding has been finished, and I doubt Optimus knows what to do either."

"That sounds kind of terrifying." Optimus said.

"Which is a perfectly natural response." Wheeljack said. As the silence between them stretched a bit while they were going to the Arctic Circle, Wheeljack vented and looked over to Optimus.

"You know, Ratchet warned me about you." Wheeljack had a slightly upturned smile.

"Warned me?" Optimus caught on and smiled slightly, wondering where Wheeljack was going with this.

 _"A natural rulebreaker, the first thing he does when he gets here is to pick a fight with Megatron, Megatron of all mechs! Then he runs off to scout with Bumblebee."_ Wheeljack took on Ratchet's mannerisms as he mimicked the speech he had been given. "But what's more telling is what he said in the end. He said that you reminded him too much of Orion Pax."

"Who's that?" Optimus asked.

"That was Optimus Prime's name before he took the Matrix of Leadership and the Optimus name." Wheeljack said. "Maybe you've yet to grow into the role, or maybe you're on the way to become someone like our Optimus Prime. Or maybe you are already, even if you don't believe in yourself."

"I do believe in me." Optimus protested.

"Yet all you do is to compare yourself to our Optimus Prime." Wheeljack said, then turned off the autopilot and took the controls. "We're there." He said. "Time to go find that allspark fragment of yours and figure out how we can grab it back from the Decepticons."


	15. Start

Optimus drove over to the coordinates. It had taken surprisingly little effort to distract the others from the datachip as they were working on getting Optimus out of Blackarachnia's webbing. He had managed to read it, figure out where it lead to and plotted a course before anyone noticed.

He didn't want to get the others involved. Ratchet was aging war veteran but not as fit as he used to be. And Bumblebee, Bulkhead and Sari were just youngsters that didn't deserve to be dragged into this trouble. This involved him and him alone. All he had to do was to get the Dark Spark -

"What's the plan big bot?"

Optimus nearly drew out his gun, alarmed by the intrusion. He looked back to see everyone there, having followed him, and the guilty speaker, Bumblebee, ahead of everyone else.

"Don't bother asking how we managed to sneak up on you." Prowl said calmly. "Somehow this chattermouth managed to stay quiet for the most of the trip."

"I told you all I could do it." Bumblebee looked back at Prowl with a sneer.

"And I need you to do it for the remainder of the way over there." Optimus said. "We are close, but it looks like that our quarry has not bothered with putting up defenses."

"So then Optimus, what is the plan?" Ratchet asked.

"There are three of them." Optimus said. "One of them can apparently phase shift. Bumblebee, you'll distract him, keep him busy. Sari, you'll be his backup."

"Gotcha." Sari said.

"We have then the others. Prowl, you'll occupy Tarantulas. Ratchet, you deal with Cyclonus, Bulkhead, you'll be a general distraction, wreck the place, but back up anyone should they need it." Optimus said. "But the plan is to get the Dark Spark, and if it looks like they'll be able to go through with their plan without it, then we destroy whatever we need so they won't be able to. I'll support the rest of you, but leave the Dark Spark to me."

"There is one other way, I could just sneak in there and grab that Dark Spark." Prowl said.

"You had an immediate reaction to touching the allspark fragment infected by the Dark Spark." Optimus said. "I'm not sure how you'll be able to handle the Dark Spark itself. I have once before, and I can do it again."

"Just a thought." Prowl said, and Optimus caught Ratchet putting his head in his right servo as mumbling something Optimus didn't catch.

"We'll go with the first plan." Optimus said. And everyone were silent. Optimus took that as an agreement and continued up to the cave Blackarachnia's coordinates had pointed to.

Things went smoother than Optimus expected, having to lead a team of inexperienced non-combatants. They stayed quiet, kept in line, and followed Optimus' lead when it came to navigating the cave quietly. It wasn't deep, and with just one turn they were able to hear someone working. Optimus inched forwards, looking around the bend to see the three Decepticons there. Cyclonus and Sideways he recognized from before, the third one, another insecticon, was new, and was most likely Tarantulas. All of them seemed to be working, and had their concentration on their work.

And he saw the Dark Spark after a moment of searching. It wasn't in a matrix like it was last time he saw it, but a large crystal. It seemed to be on a machine that was too close to Tarantulas. On it were other out-of-place artifacts. Something that looked like a crystal, perhaps another Allspark fragment. A, thankfully empty, spark casing. Something that resembled badly torn abdominal plating, some sort of large spear.

And then there was Prowl, quietly but surely inching forwards to the Dark Spark. Optimus motioned the others to get in positions, he himself tensing up and ready to run at the machine should something go wrong.

Prowl, even if he was so close to the Decepticons, went undetected. He stretched out to make a grab for the Dark Spark, but before he could touch it there was a loud crack and a bright flash of light that was the only warning Optimus had before Prowl was thrown back by whatever defense system that was surrounding the machine. All three Decepticons turned around.

"Go!" Optimus called out before he sprinted out to check on Prowl, who judging by the twitching and groaning was still alive. But he didn't get to stay for too long before he felt a heavy blow on his side. He looked up to see Tarantulas attacking him, and he brought up one of his swords just in time to block another strike.

"Optimus Prime, so you've finally arrived." Tarantulas said. Optimus quickly jumped at him before he could say anything else. Everyone else were already engaged and he saw Prowl trying to get up, only in time to see Bulkhead being thrown back by the same defense system.

It was frustrating to see that none of them were fighting as well as the team Optimus had back on his world. But it was an unfair comparison as they didn't have the experience that only thousand years of war would give them. Even Ratchet fought poorly though that could be caused by his age.

Things were out of control. Bulkhead and Prowl were down, Bumblebee and Sari had their hands full with just Sideways as they tried to figure out how to harm him while he was using that phase shifter technology and Ratchet was trying to keep Cyclonus away from Bulkhead and Prowl.

Optimus lunged forwards, tackling Tarantulas as he moved towards the panel he had been working on. There was just one shot at this, he had to figure out how to lower the forcefield, he had to -

But Tarantulas was faster, he slammed on some button the console and Optimus felt some sort of wave wash over him. He threw Tarantulas aside, trying to figure out what happened and how to halt it.

"Ah, no!"

Optimus turned quickly around with his blaster ready, looking at Sideways holding on Bumblebee while Bumblebee was trying to grab his arm and get him to let go.

"Out of the way Hot Rod!" Optimus yelled, then hesitated as he wondered why he had said it in particular while his vision seemed to be momentarily filled with a mix of orange and blue, then he noticed that Bumblebee wasn't holding on Cyclonus' arm seemed to be trying to get to his own throat.

"Do you feel it Prime?" Tarantulas said. "The fabric is so weak here, perfect to bring Him here."

Optimus turned around to face Tarantulas, but then he felt something seize up in him, as if he had been shot down but there had been no one shooting, and he collapsed. He saw Sari being kept tied up in some bent piping and she was struggling to get through it, Prowl was back up but tending to Bulkhead still laying down while Ratchet acted injured and dragging a dead leg but he had no visible injuries.

"What are you doing?" Optimus struggled, only to be grabbed by Sideways and pushed at the side of the machine, where none of the artifacts were. He struggled the moment he realized that they had been waiting for him, he was the centerpiece in whatever they were doing. He had been wrong the whole time.

"We should get started." Sideways said as he locked Optimus in with some restraints. "Before the others get their senses back."

Optimus tried to fight the restraints but the moment he did he got a shock through his whole body. Sideways didn't even flinch as the makeshift torture device kept Optimus in place.

"The sympathetic link is in place." Tarantulas said as he worked on the console.

"What are you doing?" Optimus asked again, asking louder while keeping as still as he could to avoid being shocked. He needed to have his focus all up there, he needed to know how to stop it.

"Still haven't figured it out?" Tarantulas cackled, annoying enough that Optimus had to fight against twitching. "By weakening the fabric of the multiverse, you can let something real big through. Something that's not just a physical being."

"It's very simple." Sideways said. "We're bringing in something that doesn't even belong here, that has never existed here. And when we bring the Chaos Bringer here, we'll be rewarded."

"Unicron?" Optimus went even more still, looking at the trio and wondering if they even knew what they were doing.

Optimus kept a close eye on the mad scientist as Tarantulas, chuckling to himself, typed on the console. "With your Matrix of Leadership, the Dark Spark which is the antithesis of the Matrix created by your world's Unicron himself, and then finally you and this whole universe calling out to the other Optimus Prime. And there we have a bridge." Tarantulas spun around, wringing his hands ."And who knows what will happen when he gets his hands, servos, whatever, on the allspark." This time, his laughter rang painfully in Optimus's audials.

Before Optimus could concentrate enough to hear something besides that laugh, Sideways activated the machine and Optimus' thoughts were only occupied by the oppressive feel of the foe he had hoped he had beaten not so long ago.


	16. Conduit

Optimus and Wheeljack had found it. Or rather it had almost found them. An errant flyby too fast had made them almost lose track of the allspark fragment signal, until another much slower run allowed them to see it. It was an abandoned human complex, derelict buildings strewn about full of holes and some full of snow due to those holes. That was at least what it looked like in the flyby, and the allspark sensor was happily pinging that the Allspark fragment was somewhere there. The Jackhammer had been cloaked already to prevent prying eyes of the humans and Decepticons alike. They hadn't seen any guards but that didn't mean they were somewhere out there, hiding, waiting.

The Jackhammer parked few hundred miles away and a groundbridge brought Optimus and Wheeljack back to the Autobot base, and they were greeted by everyone. All the Autobots, the kids and even Agent Fowler who looked at the two entering, guarded in his expression.

"You have found it?" Ratchet asked, even though he already knew the answer as evident with the console he was working on, highlighting that human structure.

"That's what all the instruments say." Wheeljack said.

"Unless there is some deep-boring experiments happening there." Optimus said. "That's what Doc Greene, the human who worked on the sensor, said was confusing their instruments to begin with." Optimus was about to say something more until he saw the worried looks being exchanged between Ratchet and the others, and Optimus didn't like it one bit. "Is there something I'm missing?" He asked.

"I'm not sure how indicative it is of your world, but we discovered some time ago that the core of this planet houses Unicron." Ratchet said. "Given the relationship between Primus and Unicron it is to be expected that something like this would happen. Agent Fowler?" Ratchet turned to Fowler.

"No deep boring happening at that location." Fowler said. "It's an old drilling site that's been long abandoned in the Northern Territories of Canada. They dug deep, but nothing that's unusual for oil search."

"What would have been left behind in such a facility?" Optimus asked.

"Nothing equipment-wise." Fowler said. "They're generally good at cleaning up whatever that can be reused elsewhere. I imagine some old furniture, storage tankers, maybe some vehicle or two that were dead already before they packed up and left."

"So what they got here are open spaces, something they can reuse to make isolation chambers and they're also in the middle of nowhere so they don't draw any attention from us. Except they didn't expect us being able to track that thing down." Wheeljack said.

"I imagine that after what they saw what the fragment did to their driller, they wouldn't want it on board their ship or near any equipment they can't spare." Optimus said. "I'm very familiar with the destructive powers of the Allspark fragments, I would do the same."

"Was there any remarkable activity when you flew over it?" Ratchet asked.

"Looked like just another abandoned human outpost." Wheeljack shrugged. "I doubt we were even noticed when we flew over."

"So we got two possibilities. That they did notice you and are now in the process of either hastening their experiments or going to pack up and leave for another location. Or they didn't notice you and haven't managed to start truly experimenting with that fragment. In any case, the sooner we start, the better chances we have."

"So, what's the plan?" Arcee asked.

Ratchet was quick to bring up a map of the facility, or at least a map of it that was last updated when the construction of the facility was completed.

"I imagine they're holed up in the main chamber. There could be guards in these locations." Ratchet pointed on few specific points on the map. "Bumblebee, you're going first, I'll open the groundbridge there and you can make your way over to the facility. Scout the place and report any guard movements."

"Isn't it better to just go all in now?" Optimus asked.

"If Bumblebee gets in trouble or believes that we need to act now." Ratchet said. "Ten minutes won't matter that much in the grand scheme of things." He worked on the console as Bumblebee transformed and waited patiently. Just when Ratchet was about to activate the ground bridge, he put his hand on Optimus' shoulder before turning the switch. Optimus flinched slightly by the unexpected touch, but understood the meaning of it. While the thought hadn't even crossed his mind Ratchet was clearly worried that he was going to do a repeat of the previous escape from the base.

The groundbridge closed and Ratchet let Optimus go.

"I wasn't going to pull a runner." Optimus said.

"Just making sure." Ratchet said. "But don't worry, you can go with us this time."

"I can?" Optimus asked, forgetting to tone down just how hopeful he sounded that time.

"You're the one who got the experience with Allspark fragments, thus you are the best equipped to handle it properly." Ratchet said. "The rest of us can either end up exposing our base or worse, the groundbridge to it, or treat it so carefully that we'll end up wasting time on the mission. The plan is that we clear you a path to the Allspark fragment and cover you as you retreat with it."

"A simple smash-and-grab." Bulkhead said.

[[Bumblebee reporting.]] The comms chimed as Bumblebee came in.

"We're here Bumblebee, what's the situation?" Ratchet asked.

[[I've located their main entrance, four vehicons, one of them a flyer.]] Bumblebee said and attached to the transmission was an updated map of the exterior of the facility. [[No sign of any higher-ranking Decepticons outside of the base.]]

"So your flying went unnoticed so it seems." Ratchet said. "Bumblebee, we'll be joining you." Ratchet turned off the communication and turned to one of the human kids. "Rafael, you'll have the groundbridge. It is better that all of us are on this mission. Leaving such powerful artifact with Megatron is not an option and we need all our firepower to make sure the Decepticons will not keep it."

"The groundbridge is okay with me now?" Optimus asked as he looked at the arcway.

"You came to the base through it." Ratchet said. "I believe I've shielded it enough that your anomaly won't be bothering it too much." He took the controls of the groundbridge. "Just remember, we'll make the way for you. You're already without weapons, let us handle most of the fighting unless you absolutely need to."

"Of course." Optimus tried not to show his disappointment with not being trusted. He didn't like being coddled so and he was used to being the leader, not being bossed around. At least Ratchet and all the others were far more considerate of him than Sentinel Prime was.  
Optimus didn't have much time to dwell on his thoughts as they all transformed, went through the open groundbridge and arrived several hundred miles away from where they were merely seconds ago. The first thing he felt was the cold blast of arctic air that hit him. None of the others seemed phased by it in the slightest, apparently too used to travel between different places in an instant. Bumblebee immediately rejoined them, and they all drove to the facility, with not a care for any stealth.

It was as Bumblebee described it, barely any guards. But that didn't mean they weren't alert. The moment the Autobots came into range they transformed and fired at the guards, Optimus trailing behind as he had no real weapons, nor was his grappling hook long enough at this range.

When he did come in range the Vehicons were being pressed well enough that he didn't need to join. Until the wrinkle in the plan manifested itself, the main doors opening to introduce a dark blue heavyset Decepticon who lunged forwards at Bumblebee.

"Breakdown!" Bulkhead yelled, catching his attention the moment he tackled the big one.

"We'll have Knock Out inside. Red Decepticon, take care of his electro-staff!" Ratchet called to Optimus, who just nodded, wondering what he would even do with that information. 

"Makes sense he would lead the research after Starscream bailed." Arcee answered. Inside there were more Decepticons, all ready for them. Optimus found himself forced to fight them, using all the tools of the trade he had. Grappling hook to make them trip or to make them miss their mark, firefighting foam to blind them, the axe to deal with them when they got right up to him. Despite the pressure they were putting on the Autobots the group managed to get deeper down into the main facility at a fast steady pace, until they got to the main chamber.

It was large, apparently having housed the main pumping equipment and perhaps even the drill as well. It was spacious, deep underground, and in the middle of it was the Allspark fragment, waiting in a small glass container for anyone to pick it up and run away with it.

Optimus sprinted out of the fray, trusting the others to cover for him as he readied his axe to break the container.

"No you don't!" Someone yelled and a staff came between him and the Allspark, forcing him to turn aside to look at the red Decepticon. Only his quick reaction was enough for him to block the strike at him, the staff strking the hilt of the axe. Knock Out jumped back, frowned and then used his staff to open up a steel box that was near the Allspark fragment. Optimus froze for a second, wondering what was going on until he saw a swarm of mechanical creatures crawling out of the box and heading straight for him as Knock Out stepped back.

"How fortunate that we were able to start the small-scale testing!" Knock Out said as Optimus tried to pick them off with his axe, but all of them were too quick and dodged his swings.

And then Knock Out fired at him. Optimus had to step back for some venting room, trying to figure out what else to do as the way now was blocked by the tiny Allspark fueled creatures and Knock Out's cover fire. The creatures were difficult, but not by much, the biggest threat was Knock Out.

Optimus jumped up and over the creatures, using his axe to block the incoming shots as he landed in front of Knock Out and swung his axe. He only had few seconds before the creatures would converge back on him. His goal wasn't to just quite disable Knock Out, it was something else. He swung his axe, forcing Knock Out to give up using his guns and go back to the staff. The moment he did Optimus quickly used his firefighting foam to blind Knock Out and the moment the window presented itself, he took the staff. He kicked at Knock Out and turned around quickly, using the foam on the floor in front of him which was swarming with the creatures.

"Never had a chance to test how conductive this is." Optimus said and turned on the electro-staff, thrusting it down in the firefighting foam.

It was strangely conductive, the electricity going through all the foam and striking the creatures. Optimus threw the staff into the container and the force plus the electricity shattered it, exposing the Allspark fragment.

"No you don't!" Knock Out yelled, but before he could reach Optimus Bumblebee shot at him, giving Optimus enough cover to make a grab for the Allspark fragment.

Optimus felt his vision go dark, smelling much more of ozone of discharged weapons and the frightful scent of energon. He felt weak, staring at the ground that he had just gotten up from. There was the faint feeling of contacting his comrades, asking for someone to come and help them. Then the momentary confusion as the horrific warmth of a fusion cannon rested on his back, the necessary-ally now cemented into a foe discharging the weapon, creating the beautiful yet dreadful blooming flower of explosion of his front plating bowing out and shattering due to the force of the shot.

And then he was back on the cement floor of a human compound, having to pat at his chest to make sure that it didn't have a large hole in it. He heard others calling for him, he heard Bumblebee having difficulty keeping Knock Out at bay.

The plan. The plan was for him to get out of there with the Allspark fragment. Get away from the fighting, secure the Allspark fragment. He found his ambulatory servos and ran out, followed by the others.

This was not right, this had never happened before. He was soon overtaken by Ratchet who quickly spoke on the comms as they headed towards the exit, but before the doors came into view a green swirling portal opened before them and they all went through.

They were back into the Autobot base. Optimus stood, shaken by the whole unfamiliar experience, holding onto the Allspark fragment tightly.

"What happened to you out there?" Ratchet asked, clearly worried. He didn't dare to remove the Allspark fragment.

"It was as if I was dying, but it wasn't me but was me." Optimus answered, trying to make sense of it but the memory was leaving him too rapidly and any details he was trying to recall slipped from his memory chips like it was nothing.

"Optimus." Ratchet said low as his gaze dropped to the floor in realization, and it was clear he was not talking about the Optimus in the same room. Before Optimus could say anything another wave of pain hit him, forcing him to drop the Allspark fragment. But it wasn't the same thing. There was no change in the environment, there was no overlapping memory, there was just pain and -

Something dark purple seeping through the ground and entering him.

"Optimus!"

"Ratchet! What's wrong?!"

Optimus heard them yell, he heard them becoming frightened. But slowly something else entered his auditory field, something he heard both so long time ago but wasn't even a day ago. The frequency of the background interference from the tests threatened to deafen him.

Optimus was faintly aware of being picked up and put on the medical berth. He tried to focus, his vision coming back and seeing Ratchet working on a nearby console. But the rest was brief as Ratchet picked him up again and carried him through a groundbridge portal.


	17. Convergence

Ratchet felt rusty. He was tired even for the extra energon he had given himself for the fight. But what mattered was the mission. Distract the Decepticons, allow the other Optimus Prime to grab that Allspark fragment and then sound a retreat. As Ratchet made short work of a vehicon that had tried to attack Optimus from afar he glanced back at Optimus, seeing him taking the fragment from the container after dealing with whatever scraplet intimidations that Knock Out had cooked up using the fragment.

However Ratchet did not expect to see Optimus collapse as if he had been shot. Ratchet, after making sure he had those second to spare, looked around for anyone who might have hit Optimus, trying to identify the threat. He didn't see anything so he moved towards Optimus at an angle, making sure that the exit was clear for them.

Halfway over to Optimus he noticed the small bot standing up and stroking his chest, as if searching for something on it. But the fiery determination returned to Optimus, the kind of determination that Ratchet had only seen once before in a very similar bot. But there was no fight, there was no revenge.

There was only the plan, and it said to retreat. And that was what he did, taking off at a sprint towards the exit.

"Fall back!" Ratchet called out to the others as notifying Bulkhead to get to the rendezvous point. They had what they came for. Optimus was able to run. He could check for anything else back at the base, back when they would be safe.

With the others covering their retreat and then joining them in the run back to the rendezvous, things went surprisingly smoothly. They had the element of surprise as the Decepticons hadn't expected them to be able to find them in the middle of nowhere, or even know of the Allspark fragment's existence. Now they had to get rid of it quickly in case the Decepticons had a way to track the fragment down.

"Rafael, open the groundbridge." Ratchet said as they approached the rendezvous. Bulkhead joined them as well just in time. Rafael was quick to open the portal and admit the Autobots back to their base.

Ratchet didn't waste time once all of them were through. Rafael was already closing the groundbridge, so Ratchet's next focus was on the small Prime.

"What happened to you out there?" Ratchet asked, grabbing Optimus so he would have easier access to looking him over. First a physical inspection of the chest and back, then he could scan him.

"It was as if I was dying, but it wasn't me but was me." Optimus replied weakly, sounding quite a bit shaken by the experience. Ratchet hadn't seen anything physical wrong with Optimus but he then realized what Optimus actually said.

"Optimus." Ratchet couldn't help but to say it out loud, though low. Were they too late? Had something happened to this world's Optimus Prime somehow? He saw the Optimus in front of him grimacing in frustration. But before he could figure out if it had something to do with his lack of self-confidence reflecting what had happened, or if it was something else, Optimus froze, dropping the Allspark fragment.

And then purple incorporeal tendril-like things seeped from the floor and the walls, all of them homing in on Optimus. Optimus immediately collapsed under the assault, and the base erupted in chaos.

Everyone was shouting in panic, not only were the tendrils coming from seemingly everywhere but Optimus was down. It wasn't the Optimus that they had known for so long but it was still making everyone panic. Ratchet wasn't unfamiliar in working under these sort of conditions, so he did what he was supposed to do. Deal with the injured. So he knelt down to Optimus to figure out what was happening to him.

"What's happening Ratchet?" Someone, probably one of the humans asked clearly enough for Ratchet to hear, no longer being too panicked to make all their voices combine into horrible white noise.

"I'm not sure." Ratchet said quickly. "But there is only one thing that does come to mind as of what this could be."

[[Unicron.]] Bumblebee beeped, apparently having reached the same conclusion.

"Yes. We're underground, and that's where he is." Ratchet said. "Quickly, help me get him on the scanner."

"Wait, who?" Jack asked.

"Bumblebee said it was Unicron." Raf said low, prompting Bumblebee to go to the humans for reassurance while Bulkhead and Ratchet put Optimus in the scanner.

"But Optimus, our Optimus already dealt with him!" Miko said.

"He put him back to stasis." Ratchet said quickly. "And if we don't act now then Unicron will wake up again, and this time we don't have the Matrix of Leadership to lull him back into inactivity." Ratchet worked on the scanner, fetching the last pieces of information needed to make the adjustments to the groundbridge. "Arcee, pick up the fragment and put it in a small container. We're bring it with us."

"To where?" Bulkhead asked.

"Right now Unicron isn't entering Optimus' body but is using him as a gateway. I'm tracing the endpoint, not only which universe, but where in the universe it is." Ratchet said and the console chimed. "It's on Earth. The groundbridge is ready." He glanced up to see Optimus slowly trying to focus through the pain, trying his best to take part of it all.

"You can just go to a different universe?" Miko asked.

"Only if we know the precise coordinates of it." Ratchet motioned to Bulkhead to help him with Optimus. "If we were to just guess the destination there's one against ten to the twelve chance that we **won't** disintegrate once going through the portal." He worked on the groundbridge controls, then looked up at Raf. "I have it set up. I'll be going through with the others. You can close it and reopen it?" Ratchet asked low, not so sure to trust someone with as important task as this. But he had to make sure that Optimus could come back alive.

"I can." Raf said with the type of confidence that would rival even Optimus Prime. Ratchet just nodded in return, took Optimus and put his hand on the Groundbridge control.

"I've set the destination of the groundbridge to the intended destination of Unicron. Be prepared for anything." Ratchet said. "All Autobots, with me. Jack, Miko, Rafael, you stay behind and wait for my signal." With barely any chance to see acknowledgements from everyone, Ratchet activated the groundbridge, hefted Optimus with ease and ran through it.

He had known that he was going to end up in a cavern system close to the surface. But he hadn't expected to see this world's counterparts to his team, fighting a battle that they were losing against three Decepticons. And in the middle of the cavern was some sort of machine, and Optimus Prime, his Optimus Prime, was bound to it, venting raggedly as if it was a tremendous task to do so to begin with.

Ratchet didn't need to give an order. Bumblebee and Bulkhead went immediately on the attack to protect the others, and Arcee went to Optimus to free him. Ratchet, not under any attack right now looked at the other Optimus who belonged here. No longer under attack he was recovering, however a bit slowly. Ratchet considered the situation. The real Optimus Prime seemed to be recovering as well, so bringing this world's Optimus back to where he belonged seemed to have halted the attack. But only halted. They needed to make sure it wouldn't happen again.

"Rafael, close the groundbridge, reopen it in one hour." Ratchet said through the comms, looking at the swirling portal.

"But Ratchet!" Rafael answered.

"Are the groundbridge controls showing erratic behaviour?" Ratchet asked. "Is there anything wrong with the groundbridge?"

"No." Came a bit meek answer, telling Ratchet that he had pressed too hard.

"Do it." Ratchet said, and without any reply the portal closed. In the meantime he saw someone not too dissimilar to him coming over, adorned with not only an Autobot symbol but a symbol of the trade.

"Ratchet?" Ratchet asked, only to be met with a single, quick firm nod.

"What happened to him?" The other Ratchet asked.

"They were using him as a connection between the universes, he's recovering now." Ratchet stood up and joined the fray, confident that the other had things under control. Optimus Prime was freed but still weak, Bulkhead and Bumblebee had done an admirable job keeping the others at bay joined with someone Ratchet couldn't place, most likely Prowl, and another smaller Bulkhead. The ones that seemed to be a bit out of the fight were a human, whatever she was doing here, and the smallest member of the team, presumably Bumblebee.

"No no no!" An insecticon wailed in frustration and defeat, especially as Optimus Prime gathered his strength and wrecked the machine he had been strapped in.

"What now?" Another decepticon, purple with yellow highlights, asked.

"We retreat, start anew." The insecticon said. And even before he dropped the last word everyone transformed and ran out, leaving the Autobots, both sets, a bit confused. Ratchet looked around, trying to find any indications of traps or other nasty surprises that the Decepticons could have left. Once confident he wasn't seeing anything obvious he went over to Optimus Prime, making sure that he was in one piece and alright. Optimus shivered and something dropped from his hand, a large purple crystal that clanged on the floor and seemed to fill the air with dread.

"I am glad to see you." Optimus said.

"Likewise." Ratchet said as everyone gathered around them, both to assess their own teammates status and the technology in the room.

"I imagine some debrief is in order." Optimus Prime said as he looked at the strange gathering in front of him.


	18. Goodbyes

For Optimus, standing on top of a human building in a middle of a city was not something he was accustomed to. Even though he had been at the very same spot when he first arrived in this world, the instinct to stay hidden from the native population was still strong within him. Even the Decepticons shared the same feeling, as they didn't reveal or establish themselves until they were absolutely sure of their supremacy on the planet.

But what made even less sense were everyone who were standing around. Arcee was back on their world to operate their groundbridge as Ratchet, this world's Bulkhead and Isaac Sumdac were working on the spacebridge. Prowl stood stoically, not mingling in with the two Bumblebees as they chatted together with his world's Bulkhead as a translator, and the other Optimus Prime was talking to a police officer with Sari as a backup. Jazz was there, also keeping back but close to Prowl. Sentinel had apparently decided to send him in his stead instead of personally witnessing this event, much to the relief of everyone.

And that Optimus did not have to explain Sentinel Prime to any of the others, though he did notice Jazz twitch slightly when Bumblebee, with Bulkhead's translation, inferred that the Prime rank was a whole lot meaningful over in his world than it was in this world.

Optimus Prime noticed that the other version of him was finished speaking with the police officer, so he walked over to the smaller, younger him. There had been barely any chance to mingle until now, most of the time spent either documenting what was left of the Decepticon facility, get back home for checkup and minor debrief before dealing with the matter at hand that was before them now. But that was waiting for the spacebridge to be ready for it.

"Optimus Prime, a word if I may." Optimus said to the seemingly younger version of him.

"Of course." Optimus answered, looking slightly flustered. He looked over to his own team, seemingly making sure that none of them would be following them and planning to eavesdrop on them. Thankfully Bumblebee's attention was all on the others except Optimus.

They didn't go far. A building's roof didn't really permit long walks unless someone was in a hurry to get down to the ground. Optimus stood and looked up at him, looking even younger than Bumblebee but those optics clearly showed the sheer amount of experience that Optimus had acquired in such a short time.

"I wanted to speak with you." Optimus said. "There are many questions I could ask about your world, like how peace was made and how it is to be on Cybertron that's peaceful."

"But I take it that's not what you're about to ask about?" The other Optimus asked as he looked up, searching for any signs in the other for some tells or anything that would give him an advantage, even when it was just a conversation. It was strikingly alarming how used he looked like to be at disadvantage and how he would mercilessly pounce on any opening.

"I admit that I am curious, but I believe that the differences between our universes are different enough that any answers you could give me would be of no use for me." Optimus said. "In any case, I still have to work on obtaining the peace, instead of thinking about how things could have been."

"I admit that it was a bit strange to be around so many soldiers." Optimus said. "Experienced soldiers who are living the war. Even Ratchet, well, mine, is a veteran and knowing him did not prepare me for your team."

"Nor was my team in any way prepared for you, from what I've heard." Optimus said. "You did not stand aside and let the others work without your input, nor did you take any concerns or insults laying down. Which is something I expect from any Optimus Prime anywhere."

"Uh, thanks." Optimus looked aside for a moment, seemingly unsure how to take the compliment. "I hope my own team wasn't too grating on you, I admit I don't have the leadership required to really lead a team."

"That is where you are wrong." Optimus said, only to have the other snap up and look at him with full attention. "Leading a team isn't just about giving orders or make sure that they're in best condition for the job. In that lies the risk of having a team that cannot work together or won't have much concern for each other."

"I'm not so sure about the whole "working together" thing." Optimus said. "It took me a while to unite my team and have them follow my orders. They weren't seeing the whole picture or my aims."

"And even then the team's concern for me was commendable." Optimus put a hand on the other Optimus' shoulder. "I admit that I did not think much of them at first as they were not experienced in fighting or war. But they surprised me, showed me how things work here and even then still had respect for me.

"I am aware that what you've learned of me has made you evaluate your own worth, but know this, you are the right person for this world. I do not know what happened that you would have fallen from grace, but you've dealt with it, despite the hardships. I have full confidence that not before long you might become Optimus Magnus."

"Thank you." Optimus nodded. "Even though you've technically not known me for more than a day."

"Optimus! Both of you!" Ratchet called, who was apparently finished with the spacebridge. "We're ready!"

Optimus just nodded to the other Optimus who returned the gesture, and both of them headed over to the spacebridge.

"Ratchet?" Optimus asked.

"The spacebridge won't function for very long with the hacks and cheats we had to do to make it function the way we want." Ratchet said. "It's not anchored properly to this dimension, and any trip will have high chance of resulting in instant erasure."

"Which is what we need to get rid of the dark spark." Optimus took up a heavy lead box that contained the shard, made from Unicron himself according to Tarantulas. He wasn't that sure about it, but keeping it around where anyone got it was a bad idea. He opened the box and held the dark spark. It promised so many things, whispering to him about power that he couldn't even begin to fathom, as if it was sentient and sensing its imminent destruction. Without prompting, Ratchet activated the spacebridge.

"Do it." The other Optimus said. Optimus only nodded, and with a powerful throw that could make any lob player envious, the dark spark was jettisoned into the space bridge where it disappeared. Ratchet was quick to deactivate the space bridge, but not without it groaning and making rather disconcerting sounds of protests. This world's Bulkhead was quick to get to the controls, looking at some outputs before declaring the spacebridge okay with a simple thumbs up gesture.

"Think it's over now?" The younger Optimus asked.

"No." Optimus simply replied. "This is the second time I've encountered the Dark Spark, and the first time I believed I had gotten rid of it completely after my encounter with it. It is a constant like how its creator is. Even though there is a great chance it would have been put into a world where it cannot exist, it is very possible it is still out there."

"But right now it isn't our problem." Optimus said. "But at least this is over. It's been nice meeting you and your team."

"Likewise." Optimus said. "Good luck with your mission on Earth, and I hope that you'll find a way to recover the Allspark."

"And I hope the war will be over soon." The two of them shook hands. After few minutes of saying goodbyes to everyone and making sure that nothing would be left behind or be forgotten, the interdimensional groundbridge opened, admitting the dimensionally displaced Autobots a way back home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is it for the story! I would like to thank everyone who stuck with me to the end of this story!


	19. Epilogue

Rodimus found himself jolt awake from recharge. He looked around, trying to find the reason for why he would be so rudely taken from his recharge, but saw nothing. There was no notification waiting for him, there was no announcement in his cabin or anything that was different than when he went into recharge.

The only thing that felt like could be the cause was the sense of dread that was vanishing from him. Rodimus growled. It wasn't much more time left of his recharge time so he figured he could just as well just get up now and head to the bridge.

"You're here early." Megatron said as Rodimus entered.

"I like to keep you on your toes." Rodimus said neutrally. "Anything happen while I was recharging?"

"There is something that just came up on our scanners." Megatron said. "Perceptor?"

"Yes." Perceptor nodded when he was given the chance to speak. "Our external sensors have picked up a large magnitude of chronal radiation that's coming from an object that is on our path. It seems that it's quite powerful."

"Just in the middle of space?" Rodimus asked. "Any systems nearby that could have, I don't know, lost it?"

"Nothing nearby that would explain this." Perceptor said. "I would want to at least identify the object and see what's causing this radiation, as its not even the size of my hand."

"Sure thing." Rodimus said. "Just don't let Brainstorm get his hands on it if you think it's dangerous. We don't need him trying to make a weapon out of whatever scrapmetal we pick up in space."

"Another detour to add on our quest." Megatron shrugged, having no authority to really overrule Rodimus. He himself was curious, but he didn't have the data needed to ignore it. And if it was that powerful it wasn't a good idea to leave it where any species could just pick it up.

"Thunderclash is requesting access to the bridge." Mainframe said.

"Let him in." Megatron said and turned around, seeing the large Autobot come to the bridge and immediately set eyes on Rodimus.

"You too?" Rodimus asked even before he knew he had opened his mouth. No matter why he asked, it filled him with dread to see Thunderclash nod in reply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's the epilogue. Thank you all for sticking with me through the story!
> 
> **Edit:** And after couple of comments I just now realize not everyone reads the IDW comics. This parts happens in that continuity, where Rodimus and Thunderclash carried the Matrix of Leadership at one point (neither took the title of Prime). There's also the fact that at one point Megatron becomes an Autobot after the war, and becomes a co-captain of the Lost Light with Rodimus to find the fabled Knights of Cybertron so Megatron can be put on trial for his numerous crimes, with the added bonus of finding Cyberutopia.


End file.
